Finally, here’s my colleague Rob Davies on today’s market drama:

The world’s economic powerhouses launched a coordinated push to show they can cope with the fallout from coronavirus, after the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) warned global growth could be cut in half.

Governments, central banks and international economic institutions agreed on Monday to do whatever it takes to prevent economic meltdown, prompting signs of recovery on stock markets still reeling from their worst week since the financial crisis of 2008.

Goodnight! GW

US warehouse-club retailer Costco was one of the big winners on Wall Street today.

Costco shares surged by 10% today, following reports of long queues and empty shelves as customers stocked up on groceries.

Apple also has a strong day, leaping by 9.3% on hopes that it can put its Chinese supply chain problems behind it.

A late development: ECB chief Christine Lagarde has released a statement, saying the ECB ‘stands ready’ to help.

Echoing similar sentiment from the Bank of England today, it says:

The coronavirus outbreak is a fast developing situation, which creates risks for the economic outlook and the functioning of financial markets. The ECB is closely monitoring developments and their implications for the economy, medium-term inflation and the transmission of our monetary policy. We stand ready to take appropriate and targeted measures, as necessary and commensurate with the underlying risks.

This is the Dow’s strongest daily surge since March 2009, according to the WSJ’s Akane Otani.

CNBC agrees.

That was back in the depths of the recession after the financial crisis.

The S&P 500 is also romping higher in late trading.

Shares are pushing higher in New York in late trading, sending the Dow up by over 4%.

That’s a sizzling 1,046 point gain -- which would make up for one of last week’s quadruple-digit losses.

Economist Tony Yates has written about the economic risks of coronavirus, and the limited powers central banks have to fight it.

Here’s a flavour:

A widespread halt in economic activity could cause insolvencies and defaults on bank loans, putting the viability of banks in question, and spreading financial disruption even further. The financial crisis of 2008 started out as a moderate-sized and localised default on US sub-prime mortgages. Other countries became infected because banks elsewhere were exposed to those loans, to a highly uncertain degree initially, and other institutions were exposed to those banks, and so on.

With less than two hours trading left today, Wall Street is still rallying - up over 2.5%.

The White House appears to be putting more pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates ASAP.

This is from Bloomberg’s Saleha Mohsin:

Reuters are reporting that G7 finance ministers will hold their coronavirus teleconference call at noon UK time on Tuesday.

Jack Welsh is looking down on the New York stock exchange, after the former GE titan’s death was announced today.

Analysts at Berenberg bank has predicted that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its meeting later this month - perhaps by more than expected.

But they also caution that lower interest rates will have a limited impact (despite Donald Trump’s urging today).

They write:

The Fed is now expected to cut the target for the Federal funds rate by 25bp to 1.25-1.50% at its March 17-18 FOMC meeting, but we would not be surprised if the Fed decided to do a larger 50bp cut.

While a rate cut could pacify financial markets, we expect its impact on the real economy will be muted. Monetary easing cannot fix supply-side shocks, especially with monetary policy already easy and bond yields at historic lows.

Wall Street’s most famous face is worried about the financial crisis, reports our US business editor Dominic Rushe:

Peter Tuchman, the trader whose Einstein-esque features are the most photographed on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), hasn’t witnessed a sell-off as bad as this since the 2008 financial crisis. And he thinks it is going to get worse.

“There’s a lot of fear here. A lot of confusion,” Tuchman said at the end of a week when investor panic over the likely impact of the coronavirus had triggered the worst sell-off in US stock markets for a dozen years....

Tuchman isn’t impressed by the White House’s response either:

“I don’t think our administration here has positioned or prepared itself correctly,” he said. “Investors are not stupid. They don’t like to be played and they don’t wait for the president of the United States to go: ‘Nothing to see here. Keep walking.’”

Here’s Dom’s full piece:

Newsflash: British Airways has announced it is cutting flights to the US, in response to lower demand for trans-Atlantic flights.

Add in Ryanair’s cancelled flights to Italy earlier today (and a similar move by easyJet last week) and it’s clear that a lot of capacity is being taken out of the industry right now.

Wall Street is pushing higher, on hopes of co-ordinated action between the world’s policymakers soon.

Both the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 are up over 2%:

European stock markets also shook off some of their losses in late trading.

The Stoxx 600 index has closed 0.1% higher. It was lifted by gains in London and Paris, but dragged back by losses in Frankfurt and Milan (where the Italian FTSE MIB lost 1.5%).

Budget airline Ryanair has reported it will cut its flights to Italy by 25%, responding to falling demand.

Ryanair also reported that it has seen an increase in passengers not turning up for flights, particularly from and within Italy.

Ryanair Group CEO, Michael O’Leary said it is a sensible measure:

“Our focus at this time is on minimising any risk to our people and our passengers. While we are heavily booked over the next two weeks, there has been a notable drop in forward bookings towards the end of Mar, into early Apr. It makes sense to selectively prune our schedule to and from those airports where travel has been most affected by the Covid-19 outbreak.

This is a time for calm. We will make sensible cuts to our schedules over the comings weeks to reflect weaker bookings, and changing travel patterns. All affected customers will be advised of any schedule changes at least 14 days in advance. While 80% of people who contract Covid-19 suffer only mild symptoms, the risk of infection can be significantly reduced by frequent hand washing with soap and water.

Stock markets are pushing higher again!

The UK’s FTSE 100 is now 80 points higher, or 1.2%, in late trading. Wall Street is catching a bid again, with the main indices up 2%.

The rally comes as the chief of the World Health Organization insisted that the coronavirus can still be controlled (although the situation is still hugely concerning)

Reuters has the details:

The epidemics in South Korea, Italy, Iran and Japan are the World Health Organization’s greatest concern, the body’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday.

In the past 24 hours there were almost nine times more coronavirus cases reported outside China than inside, but the disease can be contained with the right measures, he said.

Tedros added that Singapore and South Korea have been “very effective” in suppressing the virus, without resorting to walling off cities.

US president Donald Trump has urged America’s central bankers to slash interest rates (something which investors are already anticipating).

One clarification, though -- Germany hasn’t actually done anything yet (although Italy has announced a €3.6bn stimulus plan)

The coronavirus has already infected tens of thousands of people, and killed around 3,000. It has wiped an estimated $5 trillion off global markets, sending the main stock markets down over 10%.

And it could, some experts believe, deal a real blow to modern globalisation.

Companies are going to rethink their reliance on parts made on the other side of the world. Executives also may be reluctant to send time flying around the world, congregating in busy airports and conference centres where germs also congregate.

Less globalisation could be a popular policy with both the left and the right. But it could also mean lower growth.

Ed Conway of Sky News has written an interesting post on this, riffing off the OECD’s gloomy growth warnings today:

Now comes the coronavirus, itself an agent of deglobalisation, forcing companies to localise their supply chains (because those in China and other countries are themselves shut down), forcing tourists to stay home and preventing workers from doing business travel, forcing people to reconsider whether “just in time” manufacturing, whereby you rely on parts to be delivered minutes before you assemble them into a product, is really the best way to run their businesses.

This is more than a trivial concern.

The world’s collective economic model relies on the relatively free movement of goods and people from one place to another.

Yet this model is under threat at every turn - you only need look at the scenes on Greece’s border with Turkey for further vivid examples.

COVID-19 has the potential to accelerate this process, with far more lasting effects for the way we live our lives today.

US factories are suffering from the coronavirus panic, according to two surveys just released.

The Institute of Supply Management has reported that growth across the industry fizzled out last month.

ISM’s US manufacturing survey found that new orders fell last month, with many respondents also warning that supply chains were struggling (as we’ve heard from the UK and eurozone already today).

The ISM’s UK factory PMI fell to just 50.1, close to stagnation.

The underlying picture could be worse, as these PMI surveys treat supply delays as a good sign (as it usually implies there is strong demand for parts, not vanishing supplies).

A rival survey from IHS Markit, released a few minute earlier, also shows that manufacturing output growth has weakened amid a slower upturn in new orders.

It says:

Supply chain delays stemming from supplier factory shutdowns in China and the outbreak of coronavirus led to a further deterioration in vendor performance, which reportedly held back output and the processing of backlogs due to a shortage of components.

As a result, firms registered a renewed rise in outstanding business and a drop in pre-production inventories.

Supermarket giant Walmart is the top Dow riser, up 2.5%. Consumer goods provider Procter & Gamble are up too, around 1.3%.

Both companies could benefit from a surge in stockpiling, or full-blown panic buying, if coronavirus cases continue to spread.

Tech stocks are also having a good morning on Wall Street, with Apple and Microsoft up 2.3%. They both fell during last week’s rout, with Apple falling from $313/share to $273.

Wall Street’s early rally is dragging European markets back from their earlier lows:

Brace yourselves. Wall Street is about to open, and test investor confidence over the coronavirus crisis....

Financial news service RANSquawk has spotted that some brokers have been upgrading their stock recommendations today.

That might seem counter-intuitive (or plain daft) given the uncertainty gripping the global economy. But the slump in share prices last week appears to make certain companies more attractive -- although we simply don’t know how much damage corporate profits will suffer this year.

The head of the World Trade Organization has warned the global economy will suffer a “substantial” impact from the coronavirus, Reuters reports.

Roberto Azevedo also told heads of delegations that a WTO meeting planned for June was still going ahead, but “necessary action” will be taken if necessary.

The markets are turning more volatile, as all eyes turn to the Wall Street open in under 30 minutes.

As I type, the futures market is now predicting that shares will open higher in New York, with the Dow Jones currently called up 150 points.

That’s nudging the FTSE 100 higher - its now up 38 points. But there’s a lot of nervousness about US traders will behave today, as the first two coronavirus deaths were reported yesterday.

The FTSE 100 is being propped up by the pound, which is having a bad day.

Sterling has fallen to its weakest level against the euro since last October, down 1.5 eurocents at €1.147. It’s also lost almost half a cent against the US dollar, to $1.276.

Investors are moving into safe-haven currencies, with both the euro and the dollar seen as less risky than the pound.

The latest political developments aren’t helping the pound either. The government’s new strategy for trade talks with the US, published this morning, suggest that an “ambitious and comprehensive” trade deal would only grow the economy by 0.07% “in the long run”.

Any growth is welcome, of course, but this doesn’t feel like enough of a boost to make up for new trade barriers with Europe....

CNBC are reporting that Jack Welch, one of the most important US business leaders of recent decades, has died aged 84.

Welch ran General Electric between 1981 and 2001, transforming the company’s prospects and growing its value 40-fold. He was famous for aggressively streamlining the company, and notorious for firing the 10% worst-performing managers each year.

CNBC explains:

He invented the “vitality curve,” in which managers were ranked into three groups. The top 20% “A” group was “filled with passion, committed to making things happen.” The “vital” 70% “B” group was essential to the company and encouraged to join the A’s.

Then there was the bottom 10% “C” group.

“The underperformers generally had to go,” Welch said in his 2001 book, “Jack: Straight From the Gut.”

Airline group IATA are now calling for the ‘use it or lose it’ rules on landing slots to be relaxed.

Currently, an airline can lose its rights to land at an airport if it doesn’t fly at least 80% of planned flights (a rule designed to prevent incumbents from restricting new operators for breaking into the market).

IATO, though, is urging regulators to drop this 80:20 rule during the coronavirus crisis - as happened in Europe during the global downturn in 2009.

That suggests airlines are anticipating significant disruption to key routes (flights to China and Italy, for example, have already been curbed).

But airports may not be happy -- fewer flights would mean less revenue at its shops, and lower landing fees.

Bavarian newspaper Passauer Neue Presse is reporting that a BMW worker in Munich has contracted coronavirus.

This means 150 employees at its R&D centre have been sent home to self-quarantine.

Here’s our news story on the Bank of England’s pledge to to what it can to support the UK economy through the coronavirus crisis.

Mark Kleinman of Sky News has learned that the coronavirus crisis has scuppered Saga’s plans to sell its Titan Travel division (which runs escorted holidays for the over 50s).

Saga reportedly appointed City advisors last month to look for a potential buyer, but clearly it’s impossible to price the business accurately in the current climate.

Sorry, small typo in that last post. International Airlines Group own British Airways and Iberia, as well as Aer Lingus, budget airline LEVEL and Vueling.

Travel stocks are sinking lower in London.

IAG (which runs British Airways and Iberia airlines) are down 11%, followed by cruise operator Carnival (-7.5%) and easyJet (-5.7%).

Whitbread are down 5.3%, with traders concluding that demand for its Premier Inn hotels will suffer as companies urge staff to curb travel plans.

Financial stocks are also suffering, with Royal Bank of Scotland losing 4.5%. Bank profits would suffer if the Bank of England slashed interest rates. They could also face rising bad debts if the coronavirus outbreak causes some companies to fail.

One third of the index is still up - with Hikma Pharmaceuticals up 4% and Ocado now 3% higher. But the FTSE 100 is down 40 points, or 0.6%, overall, and looking rather jittery.

Shares in UK supermarkets are rallying today, amid signs that UK consumers are stockpiling essential goods in case of a coronavirus pandemic.

Sainsbury’s are up 2.8%, with Morrisons close behind. Ocado has gained 1.6%, while Tesco are 1% higher.

On Friday evening, online grocer Ocado told customers it was experiencing “exceptionally high demand at the moment” (a move which is likely to encourage MORE people to book delivery slots).

Foreign exchange provider Travelex warned this morning that the coronavirus will dent its business.

It told shareholders that it can’t tell the full impact, but expects to suffer some hit to earnings , saying:

The outbreak of Covid-19 is an incremental negative for Travelex’s business given broad exposure to airports and travel flows. VAT and related services will also be negatively impacted.

While China and other Asian in-country revenue account for approximately 10% of Travelex revenues, other markets closely linked to Asian outbound travel are also experiencing headwinds.

Travelex also said underlying earnings in the current quarter will be £25m lower than expected, mainly due to the impact of a cyber attack which took its services offline.

The OECD’s warning that global growth could be halved this year is dampening the mood in the markets.

Wall Street futures have been falling steadily, and the S&P 500 is no longer expected to rally today.

That’s now weighing on European markets too.

Adrian Lowcock, head of personal investing at investment platform Willis Owen, says the early optimism has been “all but wiped out” by the OECD’s gloom:

“The OECD has said that a ‘longer lasting and more intensive coronavirus outbreak’ could cause economic growth to halve in 2020, to just 1.5%, and markets are now heading back down in reaction.

“For investors it means putting up with a lot more volatility to come – this event is unfortunately far from over and trying call when to buy and sell in the face of such an unknown event is virtually impossible. While many stocks look cheap now, they could get a lot cheaper before this crisis is over.”

The European stock market rally didn’t last long.

After just two hours, the Stoxx 600 has faded back towards last Friday’s closing levels.

The prospect of central bank intervention, although welcome, isn’t assuaging concerns about coronavirus.... with the global death toll passing 3,000 today, and hundreds more cases in Iran.

There are some hefty downgrades in the OECD’s new growth forecasts, as this chart shows:

Here’s our news story on the OECD’s coronavirus growth warnings:

Back in the markets..... the FTSE 100 is losing some of its early bounce.

It’s still rallying - up 1.2% at 6656. But that’s only a 77-point gain, having been up 177 points at the open.

The mood in the City today is much calmer than during last week’s manic sell-off, says Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“There is a semi-reversal of last week’s sector trends with healthcare and infrastructure-related stocks no longer in favour and heavily sold-off industrial and mining stocks leading the charge upwards.

“However, airlines were still in the doldrums with International Consolidated Airlines falling 6% and EasyJet down 1.4%.

“The big question is whether a single day’s rebound is enough to repair damaged investor sentiment or if this is simply a dead cat bounce before fears take over again.

“It wouldn’t be surprising to see fund managers with spare cash take advantage of the market sell-off and buy companies for a discount.

Britain’s City watchdog, the FCA, says it is working closely with the financial services sector to ensure they can keep operating in the face of coronavirus.

Reuters has the details:

“This is in conjunction with the Bank of England,” an FCA spokesperson said.

“As you would expect we have been in contact with a wide range of firms across the sector. We expect all firms to have contingency plans in place to deal with major events so that they are able to continue operating effectively.

And, as part of that, to consider how best to support their customers.”

Every sector of the FTSE 100 index is up this morning, as stocks rebound from last week’s rout:

But there are now some fallers, including airlines (AIG and easyJet) and cruise firm Carnival.

Oil is also rallying. Brent crude has gained almost 4% to $51.59 per barrel, suggesting that fears of a global recession are easing (for the moment, anyway).

Airline shares are still under pressure this morning, with British Airways parent company IAG down 4.7%. EasyJet has lost another 1%.

The smaller FTSE 250 index is also bouncing back, up 2.5% or 483 points at 19815.

Most European stock markets are rallying in early trading, although not quite as strongly as London.

Hopes of co-ordinated central bank action are rising, following the Bank of Japan and the Fed’s pledges to act where needed.

France and Germany are both up almost 1.5%, a solid move, but Italy’s only 0.4% higher despite Rome announcing a €3.6bn stimulus package yesterday.

France’s top central banker has said the European Central Bank could take more actions to protect the eurozone economy from the coronavirus.

Francois Villeroy de Galhau, an ECB policymaker, told French radio that household consumption could be hit if the crisis intensifies, adding:

“If more was needed and we were convinced that it would be effective, then we can do more, but we are not there yet.

Our main coronavirus liveblog is covering all the latest developments - here’s their latest summary:

• Australia has announced their first two cases of local transmission of Covid-19.
  
• Two people have now died in the US – both in Washington state – and New York state has recorded its first case of Covid-19.
• Indonesia reports its first two cases of Covid-19.
• South Korea infections pass 4,000, with 22 fatalities.
• China reports 202 new cases, 42 new deaths.
• Italy has confirmed 34 deaths from the virus.
• Iran raised its death toll from 43 to 54 with confirmed infections rising by more than half to 978.

China’s stock market is leading the rally today, with the CSI 300 index jumping over 3%.

Investors are shrugging off the news that China’s factories have had their worst monthly slump on record.

Earlier today, Caixin’s survey of Chinese manufacturing output sank to just 40.3, from 51.1 in January. That’s its lowest level since it began in 2004, and signals a very sharp contraction.

But it’s actually better than the official Chinese purchasing managers survey (PMI) - it lurched down to 35.8, from 50. Any reading below 50 shows stagnation, so such dire readings highlight that the Chinese economy is really struggling, with many factories still closed or working below potential.