NEW YORK (AP) — The coronavirus outbreak is starting to look more like a worldwide economic crisis.

Anxiety about the disease emptied shops and amusement parks, canceled events, cut trade and travel and dragged already slumping financial markets even lower on Friday.

The outbreak is infecting economies well beyond the countries touched by the illness.

More employers told their workers to stay home, and officials locked down neighborhoods and closed schools.

Those steps threatened to take an even greater toll on jobs, paychecks and profits.

If the disease known as COVID-19 becomes a global pandemic, economists say the U.S. and other global economies could fall into recession.

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