january this is the business briefing. i'm ben bland. billions wiped off global financial markets for a second day, as the coronavirus continues to cause headaches for investors. the outbreak is also causing turbulence for the aviation industry — we'll be crunching the numbers to find out how much it's costing airlines. and on the markets:

let's start with another big sell—off on global financial markets for a second consecutive day, as investors react to the growing spread of the deadly coronavirus. (mix screen 2)in the uk, the fste —— of the deadly coronavirus. in the uk, the fste 100 fell another 1.9% on tuesday, meaning it's now at it lowest level in 12 months. travel firms and airlines were the biggest fallers. (ani)0n wall street the selling continued, with the dowjones down another 3.1%. the nasdaq and s&p 500 also saw heavy losses. tech giants which rely on china for sales and supplies were particulary hit, such as apple which had $17.6bn wiped off its value in tuesday's trading session alone. our north american business correspondent samira hussain has been following the sell—off, and sent us this report from new york.

if anyone thought wall street was going to be less spooked on tuesday, they would have been wrong. for the second day in a row, us financial markets have vomited, dropping more than 6% in the last two days. in an effort to calm investors, the donald trump administration advisor said the coronavirus would not result in an economic tragedy. he went on saying that by advising america's investors that it would be a good time to buy stocks. clearly wall street was not convinced. a sense from some investors that the numbers of coronavirus are as low as reported. further stoking fears is donald trump asking forfurtherfunding from congress. it is possible there is more panicking from the administration. on tuesday, it was advised america should prepare for an outbreak of the virus and that it would be bad.

businesses in the uk are worried about the outbreak well is the sell—off continuing in asia? let's go to our asia business hub where mariko oi has been following the asian markets for us. not too good as you can imagine. they are extending their losses from tuesday, from all the indices in the region. the fall is not as sharp as what we saw on wall street. that's partly because asian markets have been reacting to the outbreak for a month now, unlike wall street which has just started to react rather significantly but as a result, we are seeing asian markets taking the cue from wall street is well and that's why we are seeing this significant. the

japanese yen, seen as a safe haven, strengthening at a time of crisis, also australia is down by nearly two 5%, especially resources shares because of concerns of a global slowdown. we've been hearing the last couple of hours, on, revealing details about the budget steps being taken. in the case of hong kong, is not just the virus but also months pro—democracy protest as well as the us china trade war. the economy is officially in a recession which is defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction. the government has just announced 15 billion us dollars' worth of measures to support its economy including

cash handouts planned spending would also result in a record high deficit for the first deficit in 15 years. well one industry hurt more than most by the coronavirus outbreak is aviation. the virus is affecting a number of airlines across the world, as passengers become more wary about travelling. data by the research firm cirium show cancellations have skyrocketed — more than 200,000 flights to, from and inside china have been suspended. additionally a number of gulf states have cancelled flights with iran.shares in many american, asian and european airlines have tumbled. here in the uk, easyjet has seen its shares fall by around 18% in just the past week. and it's all expected to cost airlines dearly — with the industry body iata saying the coronavirus outbreak will cost carriers almost $30 billion.

joining me in the studio now is john grant, who's an airline analyst atjg aviation consultancy. the large ones are going to be incredibly resilient because they have huge networks and for many of the major international carriers were flying to china, it's perhaps four or 5% of the total network. but for an outline by cathay pacific and hong kong grounded fleet but we've never seen anything like this. he's a really unprecedented situations. what is within their power? i've had emails from airlines are flown with saying, we want to reassure you , here with saying, we want to reassure you, here is our cleaning procedure. we are scanning cabin crew and pilots before any flight they take in

the region. what steps realistically can they do? it doesn't alter the fact that this is a virus that is spreading rapidly. people have flown by the time they attract. the airlines are struggling to keep up with the accelerated spread of coronavirus. what about the ripple effect? there are so many other sectors that rely on it. it's horrendous. there are estimates within the asia—pacific region, this is going to cost billions in tourist receipts because the chinese are huge international travellers. it's an emerging market in countries like thailand which of relied on china are seeing severe

cutbacks in accommodation. even companies like easyjet are down. they were impacted by the incident in the canary islands but there is a concern about how long this is going to continue on over the last 12 months, airline stock prices we re months, airline stock prices were performing quite well. we've gone back to where we we re we've gone back to where we were about two years ago. but the industry is extremely resilient. we'll be talking about and standing airline performances. the airline share prices will benefit from bargain hunters who think was the storm of this virus has been weathered, people will start travelling again. for the airlines, it's a double hit.

notjust airlines, it's a double hit. not just not flying airlines, it's a double hit. notjust not flying to china but load factors are falling quite significantly when that happens, as you say, the prices come down. if you're brave enough, there are some great bargains to be had out there but you take about, does the flight but you take about, does the flight operate at the end of the day? how do airlines balance the competing considerations of, on the one hand, looking after their customers allowing people to cancel flights, for example, and geta cancel flights, for example, and get a full refund or rebook at some unknown date in opposed to the cost of the airline of doing that. how do they weigh those can heating factors? they look to the government for advice. for advice on travel policy, warnings about help stop your insurance policy will trip out if there is an advice about travel to a particular country. they are going to use

that as the litmus test or can you book, can you fly. some are a bit more flexible than others but there is plenty of capacity out there at the moment. it's just good business practice. now let's brief you on some other business stories. walt disney's bob iger has said he will step down as chief executive, but stay on as chairman with immediate effect. iger led the media giant through several acquisitions and launched its streaming network, disney +. he's considered by many to be the most powerful man in hollywood and will be replaced by bob chapek, who previously ran disney's ‘parks and products division'. tesco is set to cut more than 1,800 jobs as it makes changes to bakeries in its larger uk stores. the supermarket giant the changes were likely to begin in may. the main union representing tesco staff — usdaw — said the reports ofjob cuts were "devastating" for staff. tesco is the uk's biggest grocery chain and it employs 450,000 people worldwide.

up next — newsbriefing. the scottish parliament has given its backing to plans which would make sanitary products free of charge to all women. the measures are expected to cost around £24 million a year. schools and colleges already provide the products at no cost. 0ur correspondent suzanne allan has the details. period poverty means girls can't afford to buy sanitary product. it can mean some girls have to use products like

tissues and socks. this means some girls are afraid to come to school and don't want to leave the house. so these other pads that we sent to the school. probably every month or so school. probably every month or so in these big boxes. these girls are telling a first—year class about the free products in the toilets. most women and girls get. is the blast on average about five days a month so it can cost around 5—£8 in sanitary products every time. definitely that more people are staying off school due to not having protection. like i wasn't really aware of it because i didn't know anyone who had to deal with this but finding out even just in this school, i was very shocked at how many people are staying off. basically we started off with all the period products and put them in all the toilets that everyone had them and we had no complaints of anything and it worked really well. today, a bill to make. product available free of charge for all women and girls will go to

the scottish parliament. there was an argument it was too expensive but it's changed its mind. and it's seen as a necessity, not a luxury. it's a ride that every woman should have, that they should be able to access free sanitary products. it's not a luxury or anything like that. it makes me feel really good because i know myself there have been people who have helped in people who have products which means they can come to school with no worries. there have been scottish government schemes the free products before but this will when it passes will make it law. suzanne allan, bbc news. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: a senior officialfrom the world health organization has warned countries around the globe to prepare immediately for the further spread of the coronavirus. the us democrats running

for president have held a bad—tempered tv debate, with the frontrunner, bernie sanders and the billionaire, michael bloomberg both coming under attack. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the daily mirror who lead with coronavirus, after a hotel in tenerife in spain's canary islands has been locked down after a visiting italian doctor tested positive for the virus. hundreds of guests at the costa adeje palace hotel have been told to stay in their rooms as medical tests were carried out. meanwhile the times says preparations are being made for a severe outbreak of coronavirus in britain, including the closure of schools and restricting movement around the country. the ft reports uk chancellor rishi sunak will delay some of the government's biggest decisions on tax, spending and borrowing until the autumn, after acknowledging that growth forecast downgrades and the coronavirus created a difficult economic backdrop to his first budget.

in the arab news, the middle east and world leaders have paid tribute to ex—egyptian president hosni mubarak who has died in cairo at the age of 91. the paper says the former air officer never expected to become president but went on to rule the country for 30 years. and finally they've been called the scourge of the seaside skies and now scientists have revealed what we've always suspected — seagulls do prefer to eat food that has been handled by humans. the researchers conducted experiments with herring gulls in towns around cornwall and when birds were presented with two identicalfood items they would go for the one of which they had seen a human holding. with me is stephanie hare who's an independent political analyst. it is good to see you. let's start with the daily mirror and the lockdown. the spread of it across europe seems to be getting worse and worse now. yes, that is the problem with this virus. we are still not exactly sure how the

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