New York (AFP)

Wall Street ended sharply lower Friday at the end of the last session in January, against a backdrop of growing concerns around the new Chinese coronavirus.

The flagship index of the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, lost 2.09% to 28,256.03 points.

The Nasdaq lost 1.59%, at 9,150.94 points, and the S&P 500 1.77%, at 3,225.52 points.

Over the month of January, the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 lost 0.99% and 0.19% respectively. The Nasdaq, on the other hand, rose 2.00%.

Concerns about the viral pneumonia epidemic intensified on Friday, as market players attempted to assess the economic repercussions of this health crisis.

The United States has announced several emergency measures to prevent the importation of this virus, including a ban on the entry of non-Americans who have visited China in the past 14 days.

Earlier today, the three main American airlines (United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines) announced that they would suspend their flights to China.

"What the markets observe during epidemics is duration and direction. If new cases are detected in the United States, this will reinforce fears," observes Quincy Krosby of Prudential.

China reported 43 new deaths in 24 hours on Friday, for a total of 213 deaths. And the number of infected patients approaches 10,000 in mainland China (excluding Hong Kong and Macao).

Many cases have also been reported in other countries, including the United States.

On the New York Stock Exchange, the oil majors were particularly hard pressed. Exxon Mobil and Chevron, which also published their quarterly results before the opening, each lost around 4%.

Travel specialists such as the online booking agency (-2.22%) or the cruise company Carnival (-2.73%) also declined.

Against current market trends, Amazon displayed a radiant shape, its share climbing by 7.38%. The online retail giant posted much better results than expected in the last quarter of 2019, driven by a "record" holiday season.

At the close of Friday, the market value of Amazon exceeded 1,000 billion dollars, a symbolic threshold that the group had crossed for the first time in September 2018 before going back below.

Among the indicators, economic activity in the Chicago region, with a strong manufacturing dominance, plunged into recession in January, reaching its lowest level in four years, according to the index of purchasing managers of the ISM association published Friday.

Consumer confidence in the United States, on the other hand, improved slightly in January, contradicting analysts' expectations, according to the final estimate from the University of Michigan survey published on Friday.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on the American debt continued to fall towards 9:30 p.m. GMT, at 1.50% against 1.586% the day before at the close.

The rate on 10-year US Treasuries has fallen sharply since the start of the year, raising the fears that some observers are going under that of 2-year bonds, which has also fallen significantly in recent weeks.

This phenomenon, known as the "inversion of the yield curve" is generally the leading indicator of a recession.

© 2020 AFP