Mobile World Congress canceled due to virus fears, CDC prepares for outbreak in US

None of the people suspected of having COVID-19 in New York City tested positive for the disease, city health officials said. The city was monitoring six residents and one visitor at a local hospital for the new coronavirus. There were 13 confirmed cases in the U.S. as of Wednesday, including an evacuee from Wuhan, China who is under quarantine at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego. A mistake in the lab led U.S. health officials to release the patient from a San Diego hospital before discovering the person was infected.

Airlines have canceled more than 85,000 China flights because of outbreak, according to aviation consulting firm Cirium. That count is set to rise in the coming weeks as more than a dozen international airlines have scrapped or reduced China service altogether. The cancellations, logged between Jan. 23 through Feb. 11, account for more than a third of scheduled flights, to, from and within China, Cirium said. Close to 20% of international flights to and from China, or 9,239 trips were cancelled, and 37%, or 76,338 flights were canceled. The impact will likely dent airlines' first-quarter results as they process refunds to customers booked on those routes. Between Jan. 29 and Feb. 4, refunds were up 1,140% for U.S-to-China travel, and up 731% for U.S.-bound travel from China, according to the Airlines Reporting Corporation, which processes airline tickets.

To combat a potential economic slowdown amid the outbreak, Chinese policymakers have taken major steps to restore investor confidence and boost business activity. Fiscal and monetary policies put in place over the past couple weeks include injections of cash by the central bank, tariff exemptions and targeted reserve requirement cuts.— Rattner, Li

Organizers of Mobile World Congress, the world's largest trade show for the mobile phone industry, have canceled the conference slated to start in Barcelona in less than two weeks. Facebook and other major companies have pulled out of MWC in recent days amid growing fears over the outbreak. "With due regard to the safe and healthy environment in Barcelona and the host country today, the GSMA has cancelled MWC Barcelona 2020 because the global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern and other circumstances, make it impossible for the GSMA to hold the event," GSMA said in a statement. — Browne

New coronavirus cases in China appear to have stabilized in recent days, but world health officials cautioned the public against reading too much into those numbers. "The outbreak could still go in any direction," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of World Health Organization, warned. The slowing number of new cases "must be interpreted with extreme caution." -Lovelace

Carnival's Princess Cruises is compensating its crew and more than 2,600 passengers quarantined on a ship off the coast of Japan as an outbreak of the new coronavirus that's ravaged mainland China spreads among those aboard. The company has offered guests a second cruise for free as well as a full refund for the current cruise, including the cost of onshore excursions and tips paid to staff, adding that it will cover the costs of of the gratuities.For the crew, the company, which faces mounting scrutiny for its treatment of crew members on board, is offering the crew two paid months of vacation, the company confirmed to CNBC. -Feuer

World Health Organization officials are holding a press conference at 1 p.m. ET to update the public on the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more people than SARS. Watch it live here. -Feuer

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told CNBC's Sara Eisen on Wednesday the new coronavirus that started in China is "clearly more impactful" on the world economy than the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic. "China was different [then], the world was different," said Georgieva, in an interview with Ivanka Trump from a State Department event on economic empowerment for women. During the SARS outbreak, China was only 8% of the global economy, Georgieva pointed out. "Today, China manufactures 28%, with possible impact through value chains on other countries." — Belvedere

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is preparing for the coronavirus, named COVID-19, to "take a foothold in the U.S.," Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters. "At some point, we are likely to see community spread in the U.S. or in other countries," said Messonnier. "This will trigger a change in our response strategy." — Lovelace

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the impact from the coronavirus in the U.S. will start showing up in "economic data coming up fairly soon." He told a Senate panel it was "too uncertain to even speculate about what the level of that will be, and whether it will be persistent, or whether it will lead to a material change in the outlook. But we do expect that there will be some effects." Powell said the impact will be "substantial" in China, "important but maybe less substantial in their immediate trading partners. And we'll be looking at the economic data." — Franck

Boeing warned that the outbreak could hurt aircraft deliveries in the first quarter of the year, as traffic in Asia slows sharply because of the epidemic. A day earlier, Boeing reported no new aircraft orders and said it delivered just 13 planes in January. More than 85,000 flights to, from and within China — equal to more than a third of scheduled flights — have been canceled between Jan. 23 and Feb. 11, aviation consulting firm Cirium said Wednesday. "I can certainly see that impacting, as a result of the traffic, impacting some near-term, first-quarter deliveries for a lot of us," Boeing's CFO Greg Smith told a Cowen investor conference. — Josephs

The U.S. Army is fully prepared to help China combat the deadly coronavirus that's spread across the country, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." "The U.S. Army is built for this," he said. "When we're called, we'll be locked and loaded to respond." China has brushed aside help from global forces to stop the virus, including offers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. — Bursztynsky

Carnival Cruise Lines said the coronavirus epidemic could dent earnings this year by as much as 65 cents per share if the cruise line is forced to suspend Asia operations. "While not currently planned, if the company had to suspend all of its operations in Asia through the end of April, this would impact its fiscal 2020 financial performance by 55 cents to 65 cents per share, which includes guest compensation," the company said in a statement. — Fitzgerald

Gucci owner Kering initially had strong sales in January but saw a steep drop at the end of the month because of the coronavirus, executives said on its fourth-quarter earnings call. The luxury-goods maker changed inventory distribution and production schedules because of lower demand and reduced customer traffic in China. The company, which also owns Balenciaga and Saint Laurent, closed half its stores in mainland China and its open locations have reduced hours. — Miller

The global air cargo industry is unlikely to grow this year because of the challenges in the China market due to the coronavirus, a senior executive at Boeing said. The coronavirus crisis has dimmed hopes of a rebound for air cargo after its worst year in the decade since the financial crisis, the International Air Transport Association, a group of 280 global airlines, said last week. Travel restrictions to and from China and a more than two-thirds drop in capacity offered by Chinese airlines will hit airline revenues, said Ihssane Mounir, the planemaker's senior vice president of commercial sales and marketing. "China has reduced capacity by 70%; that is money, that is revenue," he told reporters at the Singapore Airshow, whose attendance has been sharply reduced as dozens of companies stayed away due to concerns about the virus. — Reuters

Two passengers aboard the quarantined Princess Cruises ship that's docked in Japan told CNBC's "Squawk Box" that containment measures to prevent the new coronavirus from spreading have failed. Gay Courter said many passengers on the ship, including her husband, Phil, and herself, haven't been tested for the deadly virus outside of initial temperature taking. "We take our temperature once a day, voluntarily," Phil Courter said. "We are supposed to call if our temperature goes higher than the standard they've set. But that's voluntary, there's nobody checking on anybody. Frankly, it's terrifying," he added. — Bursztynsky

OPEC has dramatically lowered its forecast for oil demand growth this year, citing China's coronavirus outbreak as the "major factor" behind its decision. In a closely-watched monthly report published Wednesday, the Middle East-dominated producer group downwardly revised its outlook for global oil demand growth to 990,000 barrels per day in 2020. That's down by 230,000 bpd from the previous month's estimate. The amended forecast is likely to reinforce the case for OPEC and allied non-OPEC producers, including Russia, to impose additional output cuts sooner rather than later. "The impact of the Coronavirus outbreak on China's economy has added to the uncertainties surrounding global economic growth in 2020, and by extension global oil demand growth in 2020," OPEC said in the report. — Meredith

Another 39 people have tested positive for the coronavirus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined in Japan, with one quarantine officer also infected, bringing the total to 175, the health ministry said. About 3,700 people are on board the cruise ship, which usually has a crew of 1,100 and a passenger capacity of 2,670. Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said in parliament that he wanted to expand testing to all passengers and crew on board, and that authorities could muster resources to do more than 1,000 tests a day, according to national broadcaster NHK. The British-flagged Diamond Princess is managed by Princess Cruise Lines, one of the world's largest cruise lines and a unit of Carnival Corp. — Reuters

Formula One's Chinese Grand Prix has been postponed due to the recent outbreak of coronavirus in the country, the organiaers said. The FIA and Formula One said in a statement that they had jointly decided to
postpone the race, which was scheduled for April 19 at the Shanghai International Circuit. "As a result of continued health concerns and with the World Health Organisation declaring the coronavirus as a global health emergency, the FIA and Formula 1 have taken these measures," the two bodies said. — Reuters

A cruise ship that had been turned away from a number of different countries over fears someone on board might be infected with the coronavirus has received permission to dock in Cambodia, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing the Holland America Line. The MS Westerdam cruise ship, which is reported to have 1,455 passengers and 802 crew members on board, will dock in Cambodia to allow passengers to disembark. The ship, which has said it does not have any sick passengers, had been turned away from Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and the island territory of Guam.

Singapore's United Overseas Bank has allocated 3 billion Singapore dollars ($2.2 billion) to provide businesses in the city-state with relief assistance as China's coronavirus continues to spread internationally. "In the face of the likely economic fallout and its impact on industries and businesses, UOB sees the need to help its corporate clients, in particular the SMEs (small-and-medium enterprises), in addressing their near-term liquidity needs," the bank said in a statement, Reuters reported Wednesday.

Read CNBC's coverage from CNBC's Asia-Pacific team overnight here: China warns of 'grim' job market for graduates, death toll at 1,113. All times above are in Eastern time.

Reuters and CNBC's Nate Rattner, Yun Li, Ryan Browne, Matt Belvedere, Thomas Franck, Leslie Josephs, Maggie Fitzgerald, Jessica Bursztynsky, Sam Meredith, Saheli Roy Choudhury, Eunice Yoon and Christine Wang contributed to this article.