Fears that the outbreak of a new coronavirus in China could dent demand hit industrial commodity prices hard this week, erasing almost all year-to-date gains. We don’t pretend to be experts on public health issues. However, experiences of previous epidemics, such as the outbreak of SARS in February 2003, may offer a rough guide on what to expect going forward. Back then, the Goldman Sachs Commodity Price index initially shed more than a tenth of its value, but this loss was fully recovered a few months after the disease was brought under control in July 2003.
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