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Coronavirus cases leap, stocks drop in response

U.S. equity futures are pointing to a large decline after new cases of the coronavirus jump.

The major futures indexes are indicating a decline of 1 percent, or a drop of 230 points on the Dow, the day after all three U.S. indexes reached new highs.

China reported more than 15,000 new cases of the COVID-19 disease and 254 more deaths. The jump was apparently due to a new reporting methodology.

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The spike came as a surprise for investors, who had become more at ease because of a recent decline in the daily number of new cases.

In Asia,  China's Shanghai Composite declined 0.7 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.3 percent and Japan's Nikkei closed 0.1 percent lower.

CORONAVIRUS LIKELY TO HIT US GROWTH

In Europe,  London's FTSE was down 1.6 percent, Germany's DAX declined 1 percent and France's CAC was off 1.1 percent.

TickerSecurityLastChangeChange %
I:DJIDOW JONES AVERAGES29551.42+275.08+0.94%
SP500S&P 5003379.45+21.70+0.65%
I:COMPNASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX9725.962173+87.02+0.90%

On Wall Street, stocks marched higher on Wednesday as investors focused on the latest batch of mostly solid corporate earnings.

Benchmark crude oil lost 24 cents to $50.93 a barrel. It rose 37 cents to settle at $49.94 a barrel. Brent crude oil, the international standard, lost 42 cents to $55.37 a barrel.

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The Associated Press contributed to this article.