On Monday, the S&P TSX Composite Index had its worst day since October and the loonie dropped against the U.S. dollar as the coronavirus outbreak spread. (The Logic)

Talking point: The index recovered somewhat Tuesday, up 0.41 per cent in late afternoon trading. And a number of China-reliant stocks are rallying slightly but have yet to recover the value lost in recent years. For example, car-parts maker Magna International, which employs 18,750 in China, has fallen about three per cent in the past five days. The film company Imax, which does a lot of business in China, as well as Canada Goose and Gildan Activewear, which rely on the country for clothing manufacturing, are also dropping. Scotiabank is warning that the virus could take one per cent off China’s GDP and slow Canada’s economic growth, like the 2002–03 SARS outbreak did. It’s not just Canadian firms that are vulnerable. Apple, which is set to report earnings after the bell today, wants to make up to 80 million iPhones in the first half of this year, many of them in China. The virus is proliferating—the first presumptive case in B.C. was reported today, and Germany and Japan said it’s spreading in their countries. That’s prompting a sell-off in Asian stocks and a rush to traditionally stable assets like the U.S. dollar and gold.