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· CORONAVIRUS UPDATES:

80,427 cases, 2,712 deaths; CDC warns Americans to prepare for disruption

An official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday said Americans should prepare for the coronavirus causing the disease COVID-19 to spread in their communities and cause disruption after Iran, Italy and South Korea reported a rapid uptick in the number of people who have been sickened.

“We really want to prepare the American public for the possibility that their lives will be disrupted because of this pandemic,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters.

However, later on Tuesday, health officials said that Messonnier’s comments were meant to prepare Americans and were not immediate directions. “We hope those steps aren’t necessary,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said during a news conference held Tuesday afternoon. “We hope that we don’t face those kinds of eventualities, but transparency is being candid with people.”

Separately, officials with the World Health Organization have said this week that the outbreak is not yet a pandemic. “We are not witnessing the uncontained global spread of this virus,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s director-general, said during a news conference. “What we are seeing are epidemics in different parts of the world, affecting countries in different ways.”

Iran now has the highest coronavirus death toll outside of China, threatening the wider Middle East

Iran’s health ministry on Tuesday confirmed 16 deaths from the coronavirus, the most fatalities of any country outside of China, where the deadly illness originated. Iran also said there are 95 current cases. And Iran’s deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, has tested positive for the virus after downplaying outbreak concerns just days prior.

Amid accusations from within Iran of a government cover-up, it’s widely suspected that the number of cases and deaths are higher than officially reported.

Italy's coronavirus outbreak spreads south, death toll rises

Italy’s coronavirus crisis spread south on Tuesday beyond its original epicenter in the north, as the death toll from the worst outbreak in Europe rose to 11 and the number of new cases jumped above 320, officials said.

The total number of cases in Italy rose to 322 from 229 on Monday, with the vast majority from Lombardy and Veneto, the economic powerhouse of the country that include the financial capital Milan and the tourist hotspot Venice.

CDC Raises Travel Advisory For South Korea To Highest Level As Coronavirus Cases Surge

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised its travel advisory for South Korea to the highest level, urging Americans to avoid all nonessential travel to the country as cases of the novel coronavirus surge around the globe.

Meanwhile, South Korea was racing to contain the largest outbreak of the virus outside China, which is home to the majority of cases. The nearly 1,000 cases and 11 confirmed deaths from the illness in South Korea pushed the global tally of patients over 80,000 and the death toll closer to 3,000.

France reports two new coronavirus infections, one returning from Italy

Two more people were infected with the coronavirus in France on Tuesday, one a French man returning from a trip in the Lombardy region of Italy, the other a young Chinese woman returning to France from a trip to China, authorities said.

Health ministry director Jerome Salomon told reporters that both patients were in hospital and in good condition. The two new infections take the total number of people who have been infected in France to 14. One of those 14 people has died and 11 have been cured and have left the hospital.

New coronavirus cases in Germany

A 25-year-old man living in the southern German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg has tested positive for coronavirus after a trip to Milan, and another man further north is in a critical condition with the disease, authorities said on Tuesday.

San Francisco declares local emergency

San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared local emergency, even though there aren’t any confirmed cases in the city, NBC Bay Area reported.

Regional repercussions: Middle East hubs, airlines at risk

Several new countries — Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Bahrain and Oman — reported their first coronavirus cases on Monday, which they say are all linked to Iran, raising fears of a greater outbreak spread to the whole region. Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and even Canada have reported cases they say stemmed from Iran.

Sanctions hurting access to medical equipment

Kudlow tries to assuage coronavirus concerns and impact on US economy

National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow tried to assuage concerns over the cornavirus and its impact on the U.S. economy, saying officials “have contained this.” The comments came hours after the CDC said the COVID-19 coronavirus is “likely” to continue to spread throughout the United States and the American public should “prepare for the expectation that this is going to be bad.”

US health officials say coronavirus will likely cause a global pandemic

The coronavirus outbreak that’s shuttered commerce across China will likely become a global pandemic, a top U.S. health official said, adding that it’s just a matter of time before the outbreak starts spreading in the U.S. “Current global circumstances suggest it’s likely this virus will cause a pandemic,” Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters at a news briefing.

“It’s not so much a question of if this will happen any more, but rather more a question of when this will happen and how many people in this country will become infected and how many of those will develop severe or more complicated disease,” she added.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar added: “We can’t hermetically seal off the United States.” Azar confirmed four new cases of the virus from repatriated cruise ship passengers, bringing the total in the U.S. to 57.

US health officials say human trials on coronavirus vaccine to start in 6 weeks

Human trials testing a potential vaccine for the COVID-19 coronavirus are expected to begin in six weeks, U.S. health officials announced Tuesday.

“We are on time at least and maybe even a little bit better,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, told reporters at a press conference. “Hopefully, no further glitches.”

- The White House reportedly asked Congress on Monday for $1.25 billion , including money to develop a vaccine and therapeutics to treat the virus. The National Institutes of Health has been working with biotech company Moderna to develop a vaccine using the current strain of the coronavirus.

· Dollar falls as expectations of a Fed rate cut rise

The U.S. dollar index weakened on Tuesday as expectations grew that the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates this year to relieve pressure on the economy caused by China’s coronavirus outbreak.

The dollar rose last week to its highest level in years as the virus spread further around the world, with investors regarding all U.S. assets as safe havens. But the index has fallen this week as other safe havens have risen because money managers now think the Fed may be more inclined to cut rates since it has the most room to do so.

Rate cuts are inflationary, lowering the value of the dollar.

Expectations that the Fed will cut rates at least 25 basis points at its June meeting were at 78.3% on Tuesday, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool. The same tool shows a 4.1% chance that rates will be in the current 150-175 basis-point range in December, down from 28.6% a month ago.

Against a basket of six other currencies the dollar slipped 0.401% to 98.939, after reaching a three-year high of close to 100 last week.

The index fell in step with the benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield, which hit an all-time low, driven by safe-haven demand. That flight to safety also saw U.S. stock indexes fall, with Wall Street’s three major indexes down almost 2% on Tuesday.

Versus the euro, the dollar was modestly weaker, last down 0.28% at $1.088. Market gauges of implied volatility in euro/dollar eased on Tuesday after rising to their highest level since October on Monday.

The yen was 0.61% stronger at 110.04 per dollar.

China’s yuan was last up 0.11% at 7.028 per U.S. dollar in the offshore market, after rising to a five-day high earlier in the session.

· Fed's Clarida: We are 'closely monitoring' impact of coronavirus

The Federal Reserve is “closely monitoring” the escalating coronavirus outbreak but it is still too soon to gauge if it would require a change in monetary policy, Fed Vice Chair Richard Clarida said on Tuesday as the central bank continues to patiently monitor the impact of the epidemic on the U.S. economy.

“We are closely monitoring the emergence of the coronavirus...” Clarida said in remarks to the National Association for Business Economics conference in Washington. “But it is still too soon to even speculate about either the size or persistence of these effects, or whether it will lead to a material change in the outlook.”

Clarida, the No. 2 at the Fed, provided a similar assessment about the virus last week, in which he noted it would have a noticeable impact on Chinese growth, at least in the first quarter of the year.

The impact of the coronavirus on the U.S. economy would likely need to be “material and persistent” for the central bank to change its outlook, U.S. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida indicated on Tuesday.

“It is really just too soon to tell the extent to which this does impact global activity and the extent to which it might impact the U.S. economic activity and whether or not it will be material and persistent,” Clarida said during an appearance at the National Association for Business Economics conference in Washington.

“What we’ve said is that we’re really going to be looking at all the data on this.”



· Fed's Kaplan says unclear right now if coronavirus calls for U.S. rate change: WSJ

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan said on Tuesday events are still too fluid around the coronavirus outbreak to say the U.S. central bank needs to lower short-term rates, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Kaplan said when it comes to central-bank interest-rate policy and the coronavirus, “it’s too soon to make a judgment about how it might relate to monetary policy,” according to the report.

"I still think we are a number of weeks away from being able to make the judgment" whether a rate change is required, the WSJ reported Kaplan as saying.



· Post-Brexit Britain starts search for new global role

Britain will begin trying to define the new role it wants to play in global politics, the government said on Tuesday, launching a review of foreign policy, defense, security and international aid.

Britain technically completed its protracted exit from the European Union on Jan. 31, ending more than four decades of alignment with the European project. However, it remains bound by EU rules until the end of 2020 while a new trade deal is thrashed out.



· Oil falls for 3rd day as virus fears accelerate on U.S. warning

Crude prices fell about 3% on Tuesday, dropping for a third day, as concerns about the spread of the coronavirus grew after the U.S. government warned Americans to prepare for the disease.

The sell-off accelerated after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Americans should begin to prepare for the new coronavirus to spread after reports this week of new cases in several more countries.

Stocks across the globe fell on Tuesday to their lowest since early December and the benchmark U.S. debt yield hit a record low on concerns about the economic hit of the spread of the virus. [MKTS/GLOB]

Brent crude fell $1.35, or 2.4%, to settle at $54.95 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude dropped $1.53, or 3%, to settle at $49.90 a barrel.



Reference: CNBC, Reuters, Worldometers, CBS News,