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| - A sharp rise in deaths from the coronavirus outbreak in China and fears of further spread sent Wall Street's main stock indices lower at the open on Thursday. China has reported 1,367 deaths and nearly 60,000 infections from the virus known as COVID-19, which also claimed its first victim in Japan and caused Vietnam to place 10,000 people under quarantine after six cases of the disease were discovered in a cluster of villages. A day after hopes that the outbreak was ebbing pushed all three indices to record closes, the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.5 percent to 29,398.7 points after about 50 minutes of trading. The broad-based S&P 500 retreated 0.4 percent to 3,367.07 points and the tech-rich Nasdaq also sank 0.4 percent to 9,690.8 points. Cisco's share price was down 5.7 percent after it reported a fourth quarter fall in year-on-year revenue of four percent. Electric car-maker Tesla saw its share price rise after it announced it would make a $2 billion common stock offering. Both were reversals from Wednesday's close, which saw the Dow hit a record with 0.9 percent growth, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also close at record highs for the third day in a row. Prior to the market opening, the US Department of Labor reported inflation in December rose by just 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted. But the Consumer Price Index jumped to 2.5 percent, without seasonal adjustment, the fastest gain since October 2018 and the second consecutive month that record was broken. The double-digit surge in fuel prices over the past 12 months was a major driver, but medical costs gained 5.1 percent in the year ended in January, while housing rose 3.3 percent, the report said. Testimony from US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell caused little market turbulence this week, and investors are eyeing industrial production statistics set to be released on Friday. cs/jm
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