Asian shares take hit as new virus cases jump outside China

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares skidded in Asia on Monday after reports of a surge in new virus cases outside China. The decline followed a sell-off Friday on Wall Street.

South Korea's Kospi dropped 3% to 2,098.37, while the S&P ASX/200 in Sydnay lost 2.3% to 6,975.20. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.5% to 26,903.84 and the Shanghai Composite index lost 0.3% to 3,029.22. Benchmarks in Jakarta, Taiwan and Thailand fell by more than 1% and India's Sensex lost 1% to 40,755.23.

Another large jump in new cases was reported in South Korea on Monday, a day after the the president called for “unprecedented, powerful” steps to combat the outbreak that is increasingly confounding attempts to stop the spread.

Hopes that the outbreak had been contained were premature, Mizuho Bank said in a commentary, “And indeed, fears of secondary infections proliferating outside of China have come home to roost, sending risk assets in a tailspin and a wave of refuge-seeking into safe-haven."

Stocks fell and bond prices jumped Friday on Wall Street amid signs the viral outbreak is weighing on U.S. companies.

The S&P 500 fell 1.1% to 3,337. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.8% to 28,992. The Russell 2000 index of smaller company stocks gave up 1.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.8% to 9,576.

Technology companies, which have much greater exposure to China than other industries, fell the most. Chipmakers, which rely heavily on China for both sales and supply chains, were some of the worst hit. Advanced Micro Devices slid 7%, while Nvidia fell 5.6%.

Data from IHS Markit show U.S. manufacturing and business activity slowed in February from the previous month, coming in below analysts' expectations.

Travel restrictions, business closures and other efforts in China aimed at...