Asian stocks fall after historic Wall Street rout

S&P 500 on Monday tumbled 12%, its biggest drop since 'Black Monday' three decades ago

Stocks again fell sharply on Wall Street on Monday despite a drop in interest rates as the nation grapples with the spreading coronavirus outbreak. Getty Images/AFP

Most Asian shares fell on Tuesday, a day after Wall Street's historic market rout, with fleeting initial gains evaporating as the coronavirus remained a major risk to economic growth.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gave up early gains to trade 0.4 per cent lower.

Japan's Nikkei stock index slid 2.7 per cent and South Korea's Kospi was off 3.2 per cent.

Australian shares were up 0.5 per cent, although this followed a plunge of almost 10 per cent on Monday.

US stock futures rose 1.1 per cent early in Asian trading, but these gains were not enough to ease investor concern about the continuous spread of the flu-like virus.

"It's no surprise that we're seeing a bounce after the big falls on Monday," said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney.

"However, the situation continues to deteriorate on the economic front because of the virus."

Gold, which is normally bought as a safe haven, extended declines on Tuesday as some investors chose to sell whatever they could to keep their money in cash.

Oil futures rebounded in Asia, but downside risks remain because of an expected slump in global energy demand and Saudi Arabia's plans to increase crude output to expand its market share.

The US Federal Reserve stunned investors with another emergency rate cut on Sunday, prompting other central banks to ease policy in the biggest co-ordinated response since the global financial crisis more than a decade ago.

But investors are worried that central banks may have spent all their ammunition and that stricter restrictions on personal movement are necessary to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

Financial markets cratered on Monday. The S&P 500 tumbled 12 per cent, its biggest drop since "Black Monday" three decades ago, despite the Fed's surprise move on Sunday to cut interest rates to near zero, its second emergency interest rate cut in less than two weeks.

Some $2.69 trillion in market value was wiped from the S&P 500 as it suffered its third-largest daily percentage decline on record.

Over the past 18 days, the benchmark index has lost $8.28 trillion.

Traders are looking ahead to data due later on Tuesday, which is forecast to show German investor sentiment tumbled in March.

The US will also release retail sales and industrial production for February, which is unlikely to reflect the impact of the coronavirus.

Some investors say markets will not settle unless the US government announces a big fiscal spending package to match the Fed's bold actions to slash rates and keep credit markets functioning.

Others say liquidity in some financial markets is starting to fall because there's such a high degree of uncertainty, meaning even some traditional safe-havens may not be that safe.

Spot gold fell about 0.3 per cent to $1,509.50 an ounce.

In the currency market, the Swiss franc, another safe haven, was little changed at 0.9470 to the dollar as traders pondered policymakers' next moves.

The dollar rose 0.3 per cent to at ¥106.35, recovering slightly from a 2 per cent decline from the previous session as the Fed's rate rippled through financial markets.

US crude ticked up almost 2 per cent to $29.24, but even this bounce is likely to be temporary.

Saudi Aramco repeated on Monday it plans to boost output to record levels.

Top global oil producers Saudi Arabia and Russia started a price war after failing to agree on a plan to curb supply.

The coming flood of supply from Saudi Arabia and other producers could result in the largest surplus of crude in history, said global information provider IHS Markit.