World stocks bounced off their lows on Friday on hopes of more central bank stimulus and government spending, but were still set for their worst week since the 2008 financial crisis, with coronavirus panic-selling hitting nearly every asset class.
Economist Mohamed El-Erian told CNBC on Friday that he expects trading to Wall Street to remain "choppy" but he suggested that he may be starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin told CNBC the market sell-off will be short-lived and looks like a compelling investment opportunity.
The Starwood Capital founder told CNBC on Friday he expects the stock market to mount a fast recovery once the worst of the coronavirus outbreak is over.
Warren Buffett on Friday said the coronavirus pandemic forced him to cancel Berkshire Hathaway Inc's annual shareholder weekend, the largest gathering in corporate America, because the safety of participants and the wider community was paramount.
U.S. stock markets opened sharply higher on Friday after their worst daily selloff in more than three decades as investors hoped more fiscal easing would head off a global recession.
Morocco on Friday suspended all flights and passenger ship traffic to and from France, the state news agency said.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Friday said he expected the U.S. economic hit from the coronavirus outbreak to be short-term, and that the Trump administration was keeping its options open for any other future steps that may be needed.
"There's trillions of dollars on the sideline, waiting and waiting and waiting," CNBC's Jim Cramer said on "Squawk Box." "They've got what they've been waiting for."
The coronavirus epidemic is putting up to 50 million jobs in the global travel and tourism sector at risk, with travel likely to slump by a quarter this year, Asia being the most affected continent, the World Travel and Tourism Council said on Friday.
The Spanish health ministry said the number of coronavirus cases in the country jumped to 4,209 on Friday from Thursday's 3,004 e as the disease spread mostly in Madrid, the Basque Country and La Rioja regions.
Sudan on Friday reported its first confirmed coronavirus case, a man who died on Thursday and had visited the United Arab Emirates in the first week of March.
The number of deaths in people with the coronavirus in the Netherlands has doubled to 10, Dutch health authorities said on Friday.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday that the Trump administration would consider suspending people's student loan payments as part of a larger strategy to mitigate the economic consequences of the coronavirus.
The Chinese city of Wuhan, ground zero of the coronavirus outbreak, reported just five new cases on Friday, the second day in a row the tally has been less than 10, while no locally transmitted infections were reported in the rest of the country.