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COVID-19 more fatal in men, France warns of pandemic risk

This photo taken on February 17, 2020 shows a member of the medical staff (L) checking the body temperature of a patient who has displayed mild symptoms of the COVID-19 coronavirus, at an exhibition centre converted into a hospital in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province.

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All times below are in Eastern time.

Total confirmed cases: More than 73,400
Total deaths: At least 1,874

9:29 am: Fund managers slash China growth outlook

Continuing worries over the impact the COVID-19 outbreak will exert on economic growth have caused fund managers to cut their China GDP expectations to the lowest level in more than four years. Investment professionals now see China’s $12.2 trillion economy rising an average of just 5.2% over the next three years, according to the Bank of America Global Research Fund Manager Survey for February. While that’s a level that much of the developed world would envy, it’s well off China’s average quarterly gain of 6.6% over the previous three years and well below the 10.6% gain of 10 years ago. It is also the lowest outlook since September 2015. The pessimistic view coincided with a lower though still largely positive outlook for the rest of the world. — Cox

9:03 am: Coronavirus is more fatal in men than women, major study suggests

Men have a higher risk of death than women if they contract the new strain of coronavirus, Chinese researchers have concluded, in the largest study on the outbreak to date. In research published Monday analysts studied 72,314 patient records from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The records detailed 44,672 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, 16,186 suspected cases and 889 cases where the carrier of the coronavirus displayed no symptoms. Patients were categorized into three groups depending on whether their symptoms were mild, severe or critical. The vast majority of confirmed cases were recorded in people ages 30 to 69, according to the research. Most of those diagnosed with the coronavirus — formally named COVID-19 — had reported “Wuhan-related exposures,” while 81% of the confirmed cases were classified as mild. — Taylor

8:53 am: Holiday Inn owner IHG sees revenue fall in China

InterContinental Hotels, IHG, warned that fewer travelers are booking its rooms in China because of the COVID-19 outbreak. The owner of the Holiday Inn chain has been highlighted by analysts as among the European companies most directly exposed to the epidemic. The group had begun to see an impact on bookings in late January and has now closed or partially closed 160 of its 470 hotels in Greater China, it said . The company’s annual results on showed that revenue per available room (RevPAR) had already declined by 4.5% last year in Greater China while performance in European and U.S. markets was little changed. Based on current disruption the impact equates to about $5 million a month for IHG’s mainland China business, Chief Executive Keith Barr said on an analysts call, describing the decline as “a short-term blip”. Barr added that the region contributes less than 10% of group profit. — Reuters

8:07 am Chip stocks dive after Apple’s coronavirus warning

Apple’s suppliers and partners are getting hit hard following the iPhone maker’s revenue warning due to the coronavirus epidemic in China, underscoring fears about the financial fallout of the outbreak. Qorvo, a radio frequency chip supplier for Apple, fell nearly 3% in premarket trading. Credit Suisse estimates 30% of Qorvo’s revenues come from Apple. Chip company Skyworks Solutions, with about half of its sales from Apple, fell 2.7% and Lam Research ticked 3% lower. Other chip suppliers like Broadcom, Micron and Intel, fell 2.2%, 2.5% and 1.2%, respectively. About 20% of Broadcom’s revenues come from Apple and about 5% of Micron and Intel’s come from the iPhone maker. Semiconductor companies Nvidia and Xilinx dropped 1.5% and 1.7% in premarket trading. Apple said Monday that it does not expect to hit its quarterly revenue forecast due to lower iPhone supply globally and lower Chinese demand as a result of the coronavirus. — Fitzgerald

7:56 am: Haagen-Dazs closes about half of Greater China stores on coronavirus fears

General Mills said nearly half of its Haagen-Dazs ice-cream shops in Greater China had been temporarily closed, amid the rapid spread of the coronavirus in the world’s second biggest economy. The epidemic, which has claimed nearly 1,900 lives, has forced companies with significant exposure in China to temporarily shut stores. Some have also warned of a hit to their earnings. General Mills said it could not quantify the impact of the outbreak on its fiscal 2020 results at the time, although it reaffirmed its forecast for the fiscal year ended May 31. The Greater China region accounts for about 4% of the company’s net sales, with Haagen-Dazs shops and other foodservice outlets making up about 40% of that. The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company said Haagen-Dazs stores that remained open were operating under severely restricted hours. The company operated 525 Haagen-Dazs ice-cream parlors and franchised 365 more outside of the United States and Canada, as of May 26, according to a regulatory filing. — Reuters

7:25 am: Gottlieb warns Japan is on the ‘cusp’ of an outbreak

Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the public should start focusing on COVID-19 cases outside of China when considering the global risk. He said Japan appears to be “on the cusp of a large outbreak and maybe epidemic growth in Japan. We need to watch that very closely. They’ve had a doubling of cases just in the last four days” with a total of 59 confirmed cases and one death so far, he said on CNBC’S “Squawk Box.” “If you start to see this become an epidemic in other nations … that’s going to be extremely worrisome that we’re not going to control this globally,” Gottlieb said. – Bursztynsky

6:15 am: German investor confidence falls sharply amid coronavirus fears

German investor confidence has sharply deteriorated amid intensifying fears that China’s coronavirus outbreak will significantly hamper world trade, according to a new survey. The ZEW Research Institute said Tuesday that its monthly survey showed economic sentiment fell to 8.7 in February, down from 26.7 in January. Analysts had anticipated a reading of 21.5 this month. “The feared negative effects of the Coronavirus epidemic in China on world trade have been causing a considerable decline of the ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany,” ZEW President Achim Wambach said in a statement. “Expectations regarding the development of the export-intensive sectors of the economy have dropped particularly sharply.” — Meredith.

5:20 am: China’s state-owned companies face operational challenges at home and abroad

“The assets supervision commission will not change the production and operational targets, and reform goals set at the beginning of the year,” Ren Hongbin, deputy director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, said Tuesday, according to a CNBC translation of his Mandarin-language remarks. However, those ambitions will be more difficult to achieve now that the coronavirus has disrupted economic activity nationwide. Ren noted that the virus has brought “unthinkable” challenges for the state-owned enterprises’ operations, and emphasized the immediate goal is to assist in virus control efforts, including production of medical supplies. The virus has also created difficulties for state-owned enterprises’ overseas projects that the commission needs to handle, alongside the resumption of work in mainland China, Peng Huagang, secretary-general and spokesperson said. — Cheng

4:40 am: Japan says 88 new cases confirmed on Diamond Princess cruise ship

Japan has reported another 88 people aboard the Diamond Princess cruise liner have tested positive for the coronavirus, taking the total number of on-board infections to 542. Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, citing the health ministry, said Tuesday that 65 of the 88 people found to have contracted COVID-19 had no symptoms. A total of 2,404 passengers and crew members have been tested for the virus, the health ministry reportedly said, with 542 infections. The cruise liner is currently quarantined in Japan’s port of Yokohama. — Meredith.

4 am: French health minister warns there is a ‘credible risk’ of coronavirus pandemic

French Health Minister Olivier Veran has reportedly cautioned there is a “credible risk” that China’s fast-spreading coronavirus could escalate into a global pandemic. Speaking to France Info radio Tuesday morning, Veran said the prospect of the coronavirus spreading worldwide was “both a working assumption and a credible risk.” The World Health Organization recognizes a pandemic as the worldwide spread of a new disease. Last month, the United Nations health agency declared the coronavirus a global emergency. The WHO has urged against a global over-reaction to the virus. — Meredith.

Read CNBC’s coverage from CNBC’s Asia-Pacific and Europe teams overnight here: Wuhan hospital director dies from virus, Moody’s lowers China forecast

Reuters and CNBC’s Jeff Cox, Chloe Taylor, Maggie Fitzgerald, Jessica Bursztynsky, Sam Meridith and Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report.

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