Stocks slide and airlines flag up to $113 billion in losses

Stocks fell, oil slipped and yields on government bonds slid again Thursday — all signs that investors remain worried about the how coronavirus outbreak is affecting the global economy.

The S&P 500 fell more than 2% in early trading, while shares in Britain and Germany were also down sharply.

The drop on Wall Street was led by energy, financial and industrial stocks, all of which are susceptible to concerns about the economy. Also highlighting this worry, the yield on 10-year US Treasury notes again fell below 1%. The yield on 10-year notes had never fallen that low until earlier this week. Investors tend to buy up the 10-year notes, pushing the yield down, when they need a safe place to put their money.

News about the coronavirus’ spread has been relentless: A cruise ship being held off the coast of San Francisco has suspected links to two coronavirus cases, one of them fatal. The governor of California declared a state of emergency Wednesday.

On Thursday, the International Air Transport Association substantially expanded its forecast for the financial damage that could result from travel bans and customers’ reluctance to fly.

The price of oil was volatile, first rising and then falling even as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries proposed cutting production in response to slumping demand.

Earlier, Hong Kong led a broad rise in markets in the Asia-Pacific region, followed by stocks in mainland China.

Google and Microsoft offer free access to software for anyone working remotely.

Both Google and Microsoft announced they would waive fees for some of their software capabilities to help businesses as more workplaces push employees to work from home amid the spreading virus outbreak.

Google said Tuesday that it would begin rolling out free access globally to advanced features of the Hangouts videoconferencing application that are typically reserved for a premium tier of G Suite.

Microsoft said it would make the Microsoft Teams function free for six months to make remote work easier. Teams is a collaboration tool and communication platform with chat, call and video-meeting capabilities.

The tech companies themselves have also been hard hit by the virus. Microsoft, which has suspended nonessential business travel, on Wednesday asked employees in the Seattle and San Francisco Bay areas to work from home until March 25 in response to an outbreak of cases in the area.