New York (AFP)

Wall Street closed Friday on its heaviest weekly losses since October 2008, at the height of the global financial crisis, as investors panicked about the spread of the coronavirus worldwide and its economic consequences.

The Wall Street star index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, lost 1.39% to 25,409.36 points. He dropped more than 3,500 points throughout the week.

The S&P 500, which represents the 500 largest companies on Wall Street, fell 0.82% to 2,954.22 points.

The Nasdaq took it 0.01% to 8,567.37 points, limiting its losses thanks to several technological values.

The main New York indices, which evolved very clearly in the red throughout the session on Friday, are also up a little after statements by the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Jerome Powell said he was ready to act to support the US economy if it was badly affected by the coronavirus, leaving the door open for a further cut in US key rates, currently in a range of 1.50%. at 1.75%.

Throughout the week, however, the losses remain colossal on Wall Street, the New York square having officially entered the correction period, losing more than 10% since the closing last Friday.

In a particularly chilly market, investors turned massively to bonds, considered less risky than stocks.

The 10-year rate on the US debt thus once again reached an all-time low, at 1.1143% during the session, as did the 30-year rate on the US Treasury bills, which fell to 1.6366%. .

According to Karl Haeling of LBBW, fear and panic about the coronavirus were the predominant feelings among investors.

"Once the virus arrived in Italy, the market thought it would eventually spread to the rest of the world," said the expert.

"The market anticipated that there could be quarantines and that in the end it would tip the world economy into a recession, or at least a technical recession," he said.

If China was until recently the only global focus of the epidemic, the risk has increased with the emergence of new source countries such as South Korea, Iran and Italy.

The number of cases of this new coronavirus in the world amounted to 84,117, including 2,870 deaths, in 59 countries and territories, according to a report established by AFP from official sources Friday at 17:00 GMT.

© 2020 AFP