GLOBAL MARKETS-Global shares head for worst week since 2008 financial crisis

* MSCI ACWI down nearly 9%, S&P500 in correction in 6 days
* Investors shun risk assets as coronavirus spreads globally
* Safe-haven assets in demand, U.S. yield curve firmly
inverted
* Asian stock markets: https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4

By Hideyuki Sano
TOKYO, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Global share prices headed for the
worst week since the darkest days of the world financial crisis
in 2008 as investors braced for the coronavirus to become a
pandemic and rapidly spread around the world.
Hopes that the epidemic that started in China would be over
in a few months and economic activity would return to normal
have been shattered, as new infections reported around the world
now surpass those in China. "The coronavirus now looks like a pandemic. Markets can cope
even if there is big risk as long as we can see the end of the
tunnel," said Norihiro Fujito, chief investment strategist at
Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. "But at the moment, no
one can tell how long this will last and how severe it will
get."
MSCI all country world index .MIWD00000PUS fell 3.3% on
Thursday to bring its losses so far this week to 8.8%, on course
for its biggest weekly decline since a 9.8% plunge in November
2008.
Wall Street shares led the rout as the S&P 500 .SPX fell
4.42%, its largest percentage drop since August 2011.
It has lost 12% since hitting a record close on Feb. 19,
marking its fastest correction ever in just six trading days
while the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 1,190.95
points, its biggest points drop ever.
In Asia, Australian shares .AXJO dropped 2.8% to a
six-month low while futures suggested Japan's Nikkei is on
course to fall more than 2%.
Fears of a major economic slump sent oil prices to their
lowest level in more than a year. U.S. crude futures CLc1 fell
to $46.28 per barrel.
As investors flocked to the safety of high-grade bonds, U.S.
bond yields have plunged, with the benchmark 10-year notes yield
hitting a record low of 1.241%. It last stood at 1.274%
US10YT=RR .
That is well below the three-month bill yield of 1.439%
US3MT=RR , deepening the so-called inversion of the yield
curve. Historically an inverted yield curve is one of the most
reliable leading indicators of a U.S. recession.
As investors rushed to safe assets, gold XAU= stood at
$1,646.4 near seven-year high of $1,688.9 hit earlier this
month.
In currency markets, the yen rose to a three-week high of
109.33 to the dollar JPY= and last stood at 109.54.
The euro stood at $1.1005 EUR= , having jumped over 1% in
the previous session, the biggest gain in more than two years.

(Editing by Sam Holmes)