On the one hand, equities continue to see the risk of a global pandemic as small. But on the other, traders are beginning to express concern about slowing of the Chinese economy due to the virus. There does not seem to be much in the way of good news about to come out of China, while negative news could further sink global markets. The U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman made comments suggesting the Chinese slowdown will be a broad negative for the world and economic news gives credence to that case. Carnival shares fell on concern of the coronavirus will have an effect on the cruise and travel industry. Seven thousand passengers were quarantined on shipboard in an Italian port as of now. Earinngs reports from some major corporations are not as good as many had expected. Housing sales are slowing. Auto sales are slowing. There was some positive news from Tesla reporting "blowout results" to cushion further declines. There seems unending bad news from Boeing and a worsening macro environment for oil patch stocks. Boeing suspended all production of its 737 MAX jetliner. Royal Dutch Shell said it could rachet up divestments as it reported a sharp drop in profit for 2019. "Alll macroeconomic indicators are working against us," said Shell's Chief Executive, Ben van Beurden. Shell also was cutting the value of its U.S. Appalachia assets amid low natural gas prices. These things have interferred with Shell's efforts to transform itself into a lower-carbon emissions business. It expects to divest $10 billion in assets in the 2019-2020 period, already having achieved half of that. That figure could eventually increase to $13 billion according to the CEO. There was negative earnings news from DuPont. One major analyst concludes, the risk or being long now is much greater than the potential reward. Facebook warned about slowing revenue. The fact that the NASDAQ has been the stellar performer on the upside sllows that traders should consider it the best "short." Moody's ratings on Shell remain positive with no immediate negative rating pressure even with weak fourth quarter results.

Nearly a third of NASDAQ stocks are now in correction, according to NASDAQ itself. The U.S. economy missed Trump's 3% target growth in 2019. Fourth quarter GDP increased at a 2.1% annualized rate. Consumer spending slowed and business investment was a drag. Trade boosted growth but inventories subtracted fromt he GDP. Growth was the slowest since 2016. Three interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve hlped to keep the longest economic expansion in history, now in its 11th year. At latest meeting, Fed left rates unchanged. The Trump Administration's 18-month long trade war with China fueled fears of a recession. Economists do not see a boost to the U.S. economy after this month's signing of a Phase 1 trade deal with China because U.S. tariffs remained in effect on $360 billion of Chinese imports, about 2/3 of the total.

A 40-day strike at General Motors weighed on motor vehicle inventories. Inventories rose at a $6.5 billion rate in the fourth quarter, after a $69.4 billion gain in the July-September quarter. Inventory investment chopped 1.09% from GDP growth last quarter.

Recently, the S&P 500 Index suffered its worst day in nearly four months on coronavirus concerns. More recently, surges in shares of Apple, Boeing, and General Electric happened after thier results oivershadoiwed concerns about the economic impact of the fast-spreading coronavirus. Intel headed NASDAQ winners recently, with semiconductor maker Boadcom close behind, announcing new deals with Apple worth $15 billion.

NASDAQ concerns are, can Tech earings reinforce sky high valuations? Is the world about to learn if a $1 Trillion Tech rally was a good idea? Twenty-six contituents are about to report earnings next week.