STAN CHOE, CARLA K. JOHNSON and MARIA CHENG
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — The virus outbreak out of China has exposed a seeming disconnect between the financial markets and science.
Health experts don't know how far the virus will spread and how bad the crisis will get, yet stocks are rallying as if investors are expecting no more than a modest hit to the global economy.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 erased all its losses from the past few weeks and hit a record on Wednesday, while markets in Japan and Hong Kong, closer to the center of the crisis, rose as well. The gains came even as the number of people infected globally surged to more than 28,000 and the death toll climbed to 563, with the overwhelming majority of cases in China.
Investors aren't pretending to know any more
