And finally... attention is turning to next week, when global policymakers could make a new push to stabilise the world economy.

My colleagues write:

Wall Street is now braced for the Fed to step up its response to the threat posed to the global economy by the pandemic when it meets in Washington on Wednesday.

The US central bank is expected to cut interest rates by at least half a percentage point and announce a fresh wave of the money-creation programme known as quantitative easing as it seeks to revive confidence among traumatised investors. Some analysts predicted that the Fed could go for a full one point off US borrowing costs – currently running in a range of 1% to 1.25% – amid fears that growth in the world’s biggest economy could collapse over the coming months as more Americans are infected with the virus.

Donald Trump, who triggered Thursday’s market mayhem by imposing an EU travel ban, stepped up pressure on the Fed chairman, Jerome Powell, to act.

“The Federal Reserve must FINALLY lower the Fed Rate to something comparable to their competitor Central Banks,”, the US president tweeted. “Jay Powell and group are putting us at a decided economic & physiological disadvantage. Should never have been this way. Also, STIMULATE!”

Right. Time to clock off for the weekend. Goodnight, and best wishes. GW

Here’s the scene on Wall Street tonight, as shares surged in late trading:

In another significant move, Trump has pledged to waive interest on federal student loans and purchase crude oil to boost the country’s strategic petroleum reserve.

That should push crude prices up next week, potentially reassuring markets worried about Saudi Arabi’a oil price war.

And despite today’s late surge, the S&P 500 is still down nearly 9% this week - with the Dow losing 10%. A tough old week for the markets, again.

One good day does not mean the worst is over, of course....

It feels significant that Donald Trump lined up a series of US business leaders for his ‘national emergency’ press conference. A sign that the public sector and the private sector are going to work together on this crisis.

My colleague Daniel Strauss explains:

Trump moved on to introducing representatives from partner organizations working with the White House to combat the Coronavirus. They include representatives from Walmart, Walgreens, LHC Group, Signify Health.

Most of the business people gave brief remarks about how eager their respective companies are to help.

Stocks are rallying on Wall Street in late trading, as Donald Trump declares a coronavirus national emergency.

Over on the Financial Times, Katie Martin has written an excellent piece about the market turmoil this week.

As she points out, investors took an age (in financial terms) to wake up to the coronavirus threat, as they were too focused on financial risks. Thus the belated, huge, plunge in stocks when the pandemic risk became obvious.

But also, there’s an alarming lack of liquidity out there in the US government bond market. It’s not as obvious as the share price moves, but it really, really matters....

She explains:

The equity price falls are striking. But investors are even more unnerved by the fact that the plumbing behind markets started to creak this week. In particular, the most important market in the world — US government bonds — appeared to be short-circuiting. Every experienced trader will tell you that Treasuries “should” be rallying while stock markets slide, providing a hedge to those who want one. But they are not, in part because of banks’ unwillingness to act as go-betweens.

“To me, it feels worse than 2008, more like the LTCM crisis,” one hedge fund manager said. The “total lack of liquidity in so-called liquid products” means some funds will probably not survive this crisis, he added. That, plus the stress in US high-yield bonds, could topple more dominoes. If funds fail, they will have to sell more assets. If companies fail, banks and funds will be on the hook. Markets would be forced to keep pricing in more and more pain.

Already, panic is feeding off itself. “The market has been jolted to the point of breaking, and textbook common sense seems to no longer apply,” Nomura’s Masanari Takada wrote. “Given the extreme uncertainty over what will happen, investors’ own insecurities could cause a worst-case black swan scenario to actually unfold.”

The last week has been a story that investors, journalists and economists will tell their grandchildren about (and mightily bored they’ll be!)

Although we’ve not actually seen any companies collapse, thank goodness, it has otherwise been just as gripping as the 2008 crisis.

As Nomura put it tonight:

As weeks go they don’t get much more dramatic than this one. Rate cuts (in the case of the Bank of England at least), more QE (in the case of the ECB), sizeable (and in some cases not-costed) fiscal easing from the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, even Germany promising a stimulus plan and wild swings in the equity markets (especially in Italy).

COVID-19 should continue to play havoc with economies and markets, health and wellbeing, in the weeks to come and we feel justified in having axed our growth and inflation forecasts this week, alongside adding to our expectations of monetary easing.

A glimpse at the FTSE 100 leaderboard today shows that miners, online grocer Ocado and takeaway firm Just Eat had a good day, but travel companies, housebuilders and retailers struggled.

Here’s a reminder of this week’s turmoil on the London stock market - which saw the worst day since 2008 on Monday, and the worst since 1987 on Thursday.

And that was £275bn gone, in a flash.

Currency analyst Michael Brown of Caxton FX reckons there’s a big scramble for US dollars.... and problems finding enough US government debt.

Unusual times, which will be contributing to the wild moves this week.

After today’s rally, all Europe’s stock markets were a healthy shade of green.

But since the start of 2020, they’re flashing red - with losses of almost 30% since January 1. The coronavirus has already inflicted serious financial costs, well before the full economic and personal harm has taken place.

Back on Wall Street, the rally is holding pretty firm.

The main indices are all up around 4% today, a huge move in normal times, but rarely worth a second blink in the current climate of fear.

Here’s the score card, with two hours of a mad week to go:

• Dow: up 992 points or 4.6% at 22,192
• S&P 500: up 109 points or 4.4% at 2,590
• Nasdaq: up 298 points ot 5.1% at 7,500

Boeing (+10%) and Goldman Sachs (+11%) are the top risers on the Dow, ahead of Walgreen Boots (+9.95%) and JP Morgan (+9.5%).

Companies across America have been taking steps to address the coronavirus pandemic this week, with many such as AT&T and JP Morgan activating home work policies.

But the long-term economic impact of the shuttering of America will take weeks if not longer to assess.

Michael Pearce, senior US economist at Capital Economics, said the escalating response to the crisis from the US government, closing schools, banning large gatherings, will take a “sharp toll on the economy”.

Capital Economics has cut its US growth forecast for 2020 to just 0.6%, down from 1.8%.

More here:

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, agrees that the last week was a nightmare for savers and investors - large and small.

“Individuals with cash in the bank were struck by news of interest rate cuts meaning returns on variable rate accounts are now next to nothing.

“As for investors, they just experienced the worst period for stock markets since the 1987 crash and the 2008 global financial crisis.

“Many people don’t realise their pension is likely to be invested in the stock market and sadly they often only find out when you get big crashes such as we’ve just seen.

“It just goes to show how the stock markets affect such a wide range of people, and not simply those looking to make a quick buck from buying and selling.

“If there is a silver lining it’s that markets ended the week with a rally. The FTSE 100 jumped 2.5% to 5,366 on Friday and the S&P index in the US was 3.5% higher as the UK markets closed.

That rebound follows signs that authorities are “pulling out all the stops to prevent a sharp economic crash”, Mould adds:

“The German government said it would offer unlimited credit to companies affected by coronavirus disruption. This followed a pledge on Thursday by the US Federal Reserve to pump trillions of dollars into the financial system.

“China cut reserve requirements for banks to ease borrowing conditions for companies and central banks in other parts of the world rolled up their sleeves. Japan announced plans to buy nearly $2 billion of dollars of government bonds and Norway followed many other countries by cutting interest rates.

Just in: Insurance giant AVIVA has suspended travel insurance sales, following other industry players.

It says that travel insurance is designed to cover unforeseen events, while Coronavirus is a known event which creates a high likelihood that customers’ travel plans will be affected.

So insurance sales are now ‘paused’, from an hour ago.

Investors are piling back into the US dollar...usually a sign that they’re getting panicky.

This dash for the greenback has driven the plucky British pound down below $1.24, the lowest since Boris Johnson agreed the new Brexit deal in October 2019.

So much for the rally! The UK stock market is subsiding in the final hour.

Traders must be getting edgy about what might happen this weekend, with Covid-19 cases continuing to rise in Europe and UK.

So the FTSE 100’s not up only 1%, making a tiny debt in last week’s rout.

And the smaller FTSE 250 (which has more UK-focused firms) is now down another 1%.

That’s despite French president Emmanuel Macron tweeting that leaders will hold a video conference on Monday to discuss a response to the crisis.

Back on Wall Street, the early rally is fading a little.

Stock are still up, with the Dow 520 points higher or 2.5% at 21,720. But after losing an incredible 2,350 points last night, investors were hoping for a stronger recovery.

They’re joking. I think....

Lloyds Banking Group has been forced to shut two of its offices this week, affecting nearly 2,000 staff, after discovering the first coronavirus cases across its workforce.
Around 450 staff at its Edinburgh Citymark building are currently being asked to self-isolate, work from home or work from an alternative emergency site after a colleague was diagnosed with the virus. That site, where some of its tech and digitally-focused staff are based, remains closed.
A Lloyds spokeswoman said:

“The Edinburgh Citymark building will be temporarily closed to allow for the appropriate areas of the site to be cleaned, after a colleague based there was diagnosed with COVID-19.

“Our priority is the wellbeing of the individual, as well as the colleagues and visitors to the building. We’re closely monitoring the developing situation and continue to follow official guidelines.”

Lloyds’ Belfast Gasworks office, where around 1,500 staff call centre staff are employed, was closed on Monday after a separate case was confirmed. That office was fully reopened on Thursday.

Veteran investor Warren Buffett has cancelled his annual shareholder meeting, due to the health risks of Covid-19.

The Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting usually attracts tens of thousands of small investors to Nebraska, keen to hear from the Sage of Omaha. Buffett is always good value, dispensing wise advice about investing in good times and bad ones.

The event will be live-streamed instead. Hopefully Buffett will make up for any disappointment by playing a few tunes on his trusty ukulele....

British Airways got some grim news today - some will lose their jobs before this crisis is over.

The airline’s chief executive, Alex Cruz, told them that it faces “a crisis of global proportions like no other we have known” and that lay-offs were inevitable... “perhaps for a short period, perhaps longer term”.

More here:

Tech stocks and financial companies are leading the recovery in New York.

Bank of America and Citigroup are up 7%, as Wall Street tries to put its worse day since 1987 behind it.

Every stock on the Dow has risen, with chipmaker Intel (+10.3%), aircraft maker Boeing (+10.1%) and Walt Disney (+8.9%) hogging the top of a crowded list of rising stocks.

Tension is building on Wall Street, with shares expected to surge at the open following Thursday’s shocking losses.

With the futures contracts suspended, after jumping 5% overnight, who knows how the Dow and the S&P 500 will perform in a few minutes?

Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin is trying to cheer traders, it seems:

Germany has pledged to boost government spending to support its economy through the Covid-19 pandemic, breaking its long adherence to fiscal restraint and balanced budgets.

Finance Minister Olaf Scholz told a press conference in Berlin:

“We have the financial strength to deal with this crisis. There is enough money there and we are deploying it. We are using all necessary measures to protect workers and companies.”

Although the stock market is surging, the City is eerily quiet.

Walking down Moorgate towards Bank of England there is a marked absence of pedestrians and cars. It feels like a Sunday, my colleague Larry Elliott reports.

Lloyd’s of London has closed its underwriting today, as part of a stress-test of its resilience for a coronavirus shutdown. Anecdotally, many City workers have said they’ve been testing home-working in recent days.

Talks about a potential US stimulus package are continuing in Washington....

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have spoken on the phone about an economic relief package to help protect the US people from the coronavirus economic shock.

This is from Pelosi’s chief of staff:

The two sides had been split about how to respond to the crisis, on predictable lines.

The Democrats are pushing for a package including paid leave for ill workers, higher jobless benefits and food aid, and free testing for coronavirus.

President Trump, though, is insisting on tax cuts - a message he’s just repeated on Twitter

The bounceback is gathering pace in the City, with the FTSE 100 now up over 8% today - a gain of 430 points.

Mining giants are leading the way, with BHP, Anglo and Glencore up around 15% each.

British Airways owner, IAG,is also recovering strongly - up 13%.

That would be match some of the wild swings we saw during the 2008 crisis.... the last time global markets were quite this spooked.

Another dramatic Wall Street session looms.....

Newsflash: The Bank of England has released the minutes of its emergency meeting this week, when it voted to cut UK interest rates from 0.75% to 0.25%

They show that the Monetary Policy Committee believes UK economic activity will “weaken materially” over the coming months. It expects to learn more about the economic shock of Covid-19 in the weeks and months ahead.

And if necessary, the MPC believes it has further tools to fight - including cutting bank rate again. It could also expand its offer of cheap loans for banks to pass onto businesses, also announced on Wednesday morning.

A reminder that the markets have been here before (and will doubtless be here again):

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will have conversations with other world leaders on Friday regarding the global response to the coronavirus outbreak, his spokesman said.

He added that planning staff from the Ministry of Defence would help local authorities work out how to support public services so they can deal with the outbreak (via Reuters).

That might reassure City investors that politicians could work together to limit the economic harm we face.

From the Footsie to the footie....

The Italian short-selling ban will include shares in two storied football clubs - Juventus and Lazio. Their revenues will be hit now Serie A games are being played behind closed doors.

English games, meanwhile, are being suspended altogether for a month - an unprecedented move, that will also hurt club revenues, and have a knock-on impact on the hospitality trade.

But as the Premier League says, “the health and welfare of players, staff and supporters are our priority”.

Three hours in, and the European rally is holding firm.

• FTSE 100: up 255 points or 4.8% at 5492
• German DAX: up 337 points or 3.7% at 9,498
• French CAC: up 182 points or 4.5% at 4226
• Italian FTSE MIB: up 1,479 points or 9.9% at 16,373

Up to 50 million people in the travel and holiday sector could lose their jobs due to the coronavirus, an industry body warned today.

The World Travel and Tourism Council fears that demand for international travel could slump by 25% this year -- causing 12-14% of workers in the sector to be laid off.

The WTTC wants governments to cut travel taxes, simplify the visa process, and support companies affected.

Another central bank has eased monetary policy - and this time it’s China.

The People’s Bank of China is allowing Chinese banks to hold less capital in reserve, freeing up more funds to support their customers.

This cut in China’s reserve requirement ratio will free up 550 billion yuan (£60bn) into the economy, PBoC says.

The Spanish stock market authorities have also banned the short-selling of some stocks, which has pushed the IBEX index up 5% this morning.

But curbing speculation won’t fix the looming economic crisis, as Pierre Veyret of ActivTrades writes:

Share markets are rebounding slightly on Friday in an attempt of a price stabilization following the worst sell-off since the 1987 crisis. This bullish opening on EU shares has been boosted by the decision from Spanish and Italian regulators to ban short-selling on certain stocks, with these two benchmarks currently the best performers in the eurozone.

However, the uncertainty persists on risky assets as coronavirus cases and the associated death toll continues to soar. The virus is spreading fear and panic further across the world and putting pressure on entire industries. Covid-19 has already slowed several businesses down and investors remain worried stimulus by central banks won’t be enough to offset the negative impacts across the world. Markets are now entering an irrational-like state with prices heading for their worst week since 2008. Most stock traders now have one major question in mind: where’s the bottom?

The Bank of Japan’s pledge to keep the markets flush with liquidity is helping markets recover, reckons IG’s Sara Walker.

Gracious, it’s choppy in the City today.

The FTSE 100 is clambering higher, up 210 points or 4% to 5452 after two hours of trading.

And a clear picture is emerging -- major international companies are rising today, with oil giant Royal Dutch Shell 8%, and miners such as BHP and Anglo American up around 10%.

But companies reliant on discretionary spending are falling again. Obviously that includes the holiday operators. Retailers, such as JD Sports (-2.5%) and housebuilders such as Barratt (-2%), are out of favour too, as traders anticipate the impact of a recession and isolation measures. Whitbread, which runs the Premier Inn chain of hotels, are down 1.7% too.

A reminder of Australia’s wild trading session overnight:

There’s always a danger that stock market rebounds are merely ‘dead cat bounces’ -- a swift, but short recovery before another tumble.

Fiona Cincotta of City Index has sent this chart over, showing how recent rises (white blocks) have been followed by sharper falls (the black blocks).

She explains:

After stocks experienced the worst sell of since Black Monday over 3 decades ago, there is a sense that the market has more than priced in the negative impact that coronavirus headwinds could bring. Let’s not forget that China has recorded the lowest level of infections with just 8 new confirmed cases. This proves that with containment measures such as lock down, strict quarantine and travel restriction it is possible for a country to rebound and relatively quickly. China has sent a specialist team to Italy to help get control over the outbreak. There is light at the end of the coronavirus tunnel, which in Europe and US we are just entering.

However, the chart is not quite so convincing. Any stronger starts that we have seen this week have not been sustained into the afternoons so there is plenty of caution on trading floors this morning.

Italy’s stock market is having a better day, with the FTSE MIB index up almost 5% this morning.

The overnight ban on short-selling may be helping, as it prevents speculators driving a firm’s share price down.

But it’s only a small relief, as the FTSE MIB slumped by almost 17% yesterday alone.

France’s finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, is trying to calm the markets too.

He told the BFM TV channel that Paris will support companies in which the government holds shares, pledging:

“We will help all companies in which the state has a stake, Air France, Renault.

What ever it costs we will be at their side and will support them.

Le Maire didn’t give more details. But he did suggest that the overall cost of helping French businesses and workers would run into “dozens of billions of euros.”

He also described Donald Trump’s EU travel ban as an “aberration”:

An hour into the trading session, the FTSE 100 is 2% higher at 5347.

That’s 109 points higher than last night’s close (when the Footsie slumped 10% to its lowest point since 2012), but down on the 8am bounce.

Mining companies are leading the 78 risers, along with supermarket chains Morrisons (+5%) and Tesco (+4%).

But there are now over 20 fallers, led by cruise firm Carnival (-11%),holiday firm TUI (-7%) and budget airline easyJet (-4%).

Investors worldwide are extremely jittery, as Russ Mould of stockbrokers AJ Bell reports:

“The story in Asia Pacific markets overnight was one of extreme volatility. Aussies stocks endured a real boomerang of a session – the more than 12% swing from its low point to an eventual 4.4% gain reflects just how frazzled investors are just now. Asia also saw see-saw trading – with most markets ultimately rebounding from their lows.

“The VIX volatility index suggests markets are as jittery as they have been at any time since the financial crisis.

Norway’s central bank has slashed interest rates this morning, in an unexpected move to protect its economy from Covid-19.

The emergency move cut Norwegian interest rates from 1.5% to 1%, and follows unscheduled rate cuts in the UK, US and Canada in recent days.

The Norges Bank warned:

“There is considerable uncertainty about the duration and impact of the coronavirus outbreak, with a risk of a pronounced economic downturn..

It added that its rate-setting committee is “monitoring developments closely and is prepared to make further rate cuts.”

ING economist David Smith says the move was forced by the sharp fall in oil prices, and also in global interest rate expectations:

Hmmm... this morning’s rally is losing more momentum - with the FTSE 100 now up around one hundred points still (nearly 2%).

As Connor Campbell of SpreadEx puts it:

Driven by its miners – Rio Tinto, BHP Group and Anglo American were all up between 9% and 12% – the FTSE climbed 100 points to just about cross 5450.

That already marks a sharp pull back from the 6%-plus bounce seen in the moments after the open, suggesting that equities have a job on their hands convincing investors to stick with them until closing time.

It’s probably also worth noting that, even with this rise, the UK index is has shed almost exactly 2000 points in the last 3-weeks.

Savers and pension holders will welcome any rally today.

But today’s rebound looks rather unimpressive, in the context of the last few days:

After that early surge, the UK and other European markets have stabilised up around 3% to 4%.

Correction: Australia’s market finished UP 4%, not down as I mistyped earlier. Even better!

Britain’s FTSE 250 index of medium-sized firms is also rallying, but with less oomph than its big sibling.

The FTSE 250 has gained almost 2% in early trading. But Cineworld (which might breach its banking covenants if forced to close cinemas) are down 13%, and Restaurant Group (Frankie & Bennies, Wagamama) are down another 5%.

The threat of mass sporting cancellations is hitting gambling firms, with William Hill down 6%.

European stock markets are also recovering, after a historic 10% plunge on Thursday.

Germany’s DAX has risen by 3.5% at the open, with financial stocks such as Deutsche Bank (+7%) and Commerzbank (+11%) among the risers.

Stock market regulators are taking steps to shore up the markets.

Overnight, Italy’s watchdog announced a temporary short-selling ban on some stocks - to prevent speculators from selling shares they don’t own (and buying them back cheaper). Britain’s FCA says the move will also affect Italian banks traded in the City.

South Korea has announced a similar move too: