Rising fears of a coronavirus pandemic have knocked $5 trillion in value off the world's stock markets inside of one week, Reuters reports.
The free-fall includes $3.4 trillion wiped from the U.S. stock market alone.
SEI Investments Head of Asian Equities John Lau said:
"Investors are trying to price in the worst case scenario and the biggest risk is what happens now in the United States and other major countries outside of Asia. These are highly uncertainty times, no one really knows the answer and the markets are really panicking."
As the Wall Street Journal notes, stocks are on track for their biggest weekly losses since the 2008 financial crisis.
