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· Shares tumbled on Monday as investors grew increasingly anxious about the economic impact of China’s spreading virus outbreak, with demand spiking for safe-haven assets such as the Japanese yen and Treasury notes.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was off 0.4%, although trade in the region has already slowed for the Lunar New Year and other holidays, with financial markets in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Australia closed on Monday.

All three major Wall Street indexes closed sharply lower on Friday, with the S&P 500 seeing its biggest one-day percentage drop in over three months.

The S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.9%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC shed 0.9% after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed a second case of the virus on U.S. soil.

“Investors will react quickly to any sign of negativity and this is no exception as China announces that the issue has become an emergency. This could keep oil prices fragile until the coronavirus shows signs of slowing down,” said Mihir Kapadia, chief executive at Sun Global Investments.

· Japan’s Nikkei share average posted its biggest one-day loss in in five months on Monday, with tourism-related stocks under pressure amid fears that a virus outbreak in China could be more deadly and harder to contain than initially thought.

The Nikkei share average slumped 2.03%, its biggest percentage fall since Aug. 26, to end at 23,343.51 points, the lowest finish since Jan. 8. The broader Topix lost 1.61% to 1,702.57.

China extended its Lunar New Year holiday and more big businesses shut down and told staff to work from home in a bid to contain the spread of the disease as the death toll rose to 81.