So much for hopes that the worldwide crisis could be peaking.

Global stocks turned negative again Wednesday (April 8) as traders took in the latest evidence.

That included a record death toll the day before in the U.S., and a doubling in new cases in China.

Most Asian indexes closed in the red as a result.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell over 1%.

Japan's Nikkei was the exception, gaining over 2%.

Markets welcomed Tokyo's decision to declare a state of emergency and step up action against the outbreak.

No such positivity in Europe though, where key indexes all fell from the open.

The regional Stoxx 600 dropped over 1% in early trade, snapping two days of sharp gains.

Shares in Tesco dropped 4% after the UK supermarket said the crisis would cost it over $1 billion.

Big UK insurers tumbled after they scrapped dividends to preserve cash.

Aviva was down as much as 9%.

Fresh signs of broader economic pain too.

Germany's leading economic institutes said Wednesday that the country's economy would probably shrink almost 10% in the second quarter.

That's more than twice as bad as the early stages of the global financial crisis a decade ago.