Will the Coronavirus Cause the American Economy to Catch a Cold?

As per Bloomberg.com (that’s not a Presidential endorsement ;) Italy is reeling from the impact of the spreading Coronavirus.

“More than 50% of our work for this week has been canceled, and I’m scared that the situation will worsen,” the 48-year-old who runs a small company transporting heavy machinery in the regional city of Lecco said from his office 118 kilometers (73 miles) from the center of the outbreak south of Milan. “We have a real psychosis.”

We are all well aware of the confusion regarding just how bad the virus is impacting people and businesses in China, as the communist regime is preventing news from being released. But we do know that five million businesses worldwide that depend on manufacturing and supply chains in China are now seeking alternatives, and this is slowing down revenue.

Will this impact America? Well, it’s really not a matter of if anymore, but when and how severe.

One example is Apple which is suggesting the slowdown from China will prevent some orders not being met.

The most worrying sign of the economic impact is consumer confidence, always the benchmark for predicting the direction of GDP.

MorningConsult.com:

Americans are growing more worried about a potential hit on the U.S. economy from the coronavirus outbreak, as economic policymakers consider how to grapple with the expected fallout.

Sixty-nine percent of U.S. adults are either “very” or “somewhat” concerned about the domestic economic impact of the coronavirus, according to a Morning Consult poll conducted Feb. 24-26. The poll surveyed 2,200 adults and carries a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

Just a few weeks earlier, that figure stood at 55 percent.

The next few weeks will tell us much, but small business owners are watching their supply chains and orders very closely as we wait to see if the impact will cause America’s economy to catch a flu.