Oil is also having a bad day. It's shot down to below $27 a barrel, as our graph shows.

The pound's day is getting worse. It's now slipped below $1.18 and is down 2.40% on the day.

President Donald Trump has announced the temporary closure of the US border with Canada to non-essential traffic.

Us markets have followed Europe and Asia down.

The S&P 500 has fallen 5.21% to 2,397.79, while Dow Jones is down 5.22% at 20,129.70.

The Nasdaq has lost 4.33% to drop to 7,017.38.

Image source, Getty Images

A number of UK property funds have been suspended over the last few hours after being hit by the coronavirus market panic.

Yesterday Kames Capital banned trading on its £585m Property Income fund and it was followed this morning Janus Henderson, BMO, Aviva and Aberdeen Standard.

Columbia Threadneedle is the latest to join them in the last few minutes suspending dealing in the Threadneedle UK Property Authorised Investment Fund blaming "exceptional uncertainty".

FCA rules require that funds should suspend trading of units if material uncertainty is applied to more than 20% of a fund’s immovable assets.

Late last year M&G suspended its £2.3bn Property Portfolio due to liquidity concerns.

We know about the problems shoppers have had in stores, but now there are a growing number of online supermarket customers experiencing huge queues...

As you can see from the day's trading graph above the pound is sharply lower, part of a steady decline since 9th March.

Sterling has experienced “one of its steepest declines in memory” writes Neil Wilson chief market analyst at Markets.com.

It hit its weakest level since 1985, excluding the Oct 2016 “flash crash”, he says.

At 1pm UK time a pound was buying $1.19 and €1.08.

“There is a synchronised rush for dollars that has caught most companies, governments and traders on the hop,” Mr Wilson writes. But also: “the euro has developed certain safe haven characteristics. Sterling is, on the other hand, a bit of a proxy for risk.”

The US markets don't open for another half hour. But the scene has been set in Europe with another slide across all indexes.

At around 1pm UK time the FTSE 100 is down 4.7%.

The FTSE 250 is down 5.59%.

France's CAC 40 is off 5.7%.

Germany's DAX is off 5.3%.

Amsterdam is down 5.1%

Jace Tyrrell, boss of New West End Company which represents 600 retailers and businesses across London's West End, has commented on the closure of Selfridges stores:

Image source, FCA

"We expect firms to provide strong support and service to customers during this period," the Financial Conduct Authority said today.

In a statement on coronavirus, external, the City watchdog said: "We are closely monitoring the coronavirus situation. The FCA stands ready to take any steps necessary to ensure customers are protected and markets continue to function well."

It said financial firms "should be clear and transparent and provide support as consumers and small businesses face challenges at this time."

Image source, Getty Images

Amazon is temporarily refusing to stock certain items in its warehouses, to cope with overwhelming demand for household essentials due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It means third-party sellers of non-essential items could find it difficult to ship orders to customers.

The move will last until 5 April and cover warehouses in the US and Europe.

Amazon told the BBC: "We are temporarily prioritising household staples, medical supplies, and other high-demand products coming into our fulfilment centres so we can more quickly receive, restock, and deliver these products to customers.

"We understand this is a change for our selling partners and appreciate their understanding."

Image source, Getty Images

Car dealership Pendragon has seen its shares slump to their lowest level in nearly 11 years.

Shares in the group - which owns brands including Evans Halshaw and Stratstone - plunged as much as 33% this morning, but are now down 15.10% at 5.13p.

The reason? It posted an annual loss and warned the coronavirus outbreak is set to see customers stay away from showrooms.

Pendragon swung to an upre-tax loss of £16.4m in 2019, against profits of £47.8m the previous year.

It said: "As the virus spreads across the UK, then this will likely influence the willingness of customers to visit our dealerships, which could affect our financial performance."

Image source, Getty Images

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has suspended production at the company’s Goodwood-based manufacturing plant from Monday 23 March for two weeks.

The company said: "In order to further secure the health and welfare of the employees of the company this suspension will be followed by an already-planned two-week Easter maintenance shutdown.

“This action has not been taken lightly, but the health and well-being of our exceptional workforce is first and foremost in our minds," said boss Torsten Müller-Ötvös.

Image source, AFP

Steve from Hitchin has written in response to Andy in Norfolk’s views that supermarkets should cut back on niche items to make more room for essentials.

"During my career I’ve worked for Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Boots, all of them as a project manager delivering systems for their supply chain," Steve says.

"Their infrastructure is well set up to respond to demand, but when demand is so high and concentrated on a few items, you can’t just magic new stock from nowhere.

"They will be working flat out to resupply the shelves as quick as they can, but the real solution is for people to stop buying more than they need.

"This issue is caused by selfish attitudes. No retailer out there wants this situation, it would be far better to have steady demand."

Indeed, Garry Hale reports: "Our local Tesco has closed fresh meat/fish counter to focus staff and stocking on essential items"

Keep your comments coming please to bizlivepage@bbc.co.uk

Image source, Getty Images

Share have fallen again in Europe, with markets unimpressed by government stimulus packages designed to counter the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Frankfurt's Dax is down 5.65% while the Paris Cac 40 has lost 5.78%.

The pan European Euro Stoxx 50 is down 5.94%.

Wall Street's main indexes rebounded by more than 5% yesterday following Monday's steep falls, but are expected to open at around 6% down when trading starts today.

Tom Burridge
Transport correspondent

Image source, PA Media

One of the largest train companies in the UK had to cut some train services during the morning rush hour because of staff shortages.

South Western Railway was principally short of train crews.

It was a relatively small number of services in percentage terms.

Contingency planning is being worked-out on the railways to ensure that services still run throughout the coming weeks so that vital journeys are still possible.

Image source, Getty Images

Glastonbury's famous Pyramid Stage will remain dark in June, as the festival becomes the latest event to be cancelled due to coronavirus.

Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar were due to headline, alongside Diana Ross and Dua Lipa.

Just six days ago, organiser Emily Eavis said she had "fingers firmly crossed" the event would go ahead.

But after the government advised people to avoid mass gatherings, cancellation became inevitable.

Northern England supermarket chain Booths has also taken action to help vulnerable customers.

It has asked other customers to shop outside of 9.30am – 11am to allow vulnerable and elderly customers priority to shop.

"We will not be policing this or turning anyone away, it’s simply an appeal to our customers to help us look after our community," it said.

It has 28 branches across Lancashire, Cumbria, Yorkshire, Cheshire and Greater Manchester.

Image source, Getty Images

Asda is the latest big supermarket chain to act in response, external to the coronavirus outbreak.

It has placed a limit on each product of three per customer across food, toiletries and cleaning products, to ensure customers have access to their essentials.

It is temporarily closing 24 hour stores between 12am and 6am to give workers time to re-stock and clean the stores.

It is also freeing up room for colleagues by temporarily closing cafes and pizza counters.

"We are asking our customers to shop responsibly so that everyone has access to the essentials – so while we have placed a limit on certain purchases, we encourage customers to only buy what they need," Asda said.

Image source, Getty Images

Have supermarkets got their priorities wrong?

Business Live reader Andy in Norfolk thinks so.

"To me the telling thing about the supermarkets is the stuff they DO have on the shelves. Obviously stuff we don’t need, or really want.

"Perhaps they should focus the supply chain on things we do actually need. My local Sainsbury's yesterday had no tea, but loads of the high-profit fruit concoctions labelled as tea," he pointed out.

There's more! "Hopefully, once we have come through this crisis it will be realised that we don’t need yoghurts (for example) in five different types from several different brands, a dozen flavours and choice of pack options, hundreds of feet of shelf space, all being refrigerated just to sell a very small number of units. The same applies to cat and dog food, snacks and coffee."

Others would disagree with Andy's conclusion. Business Live for instance can never find enough of the right coffee on supermarket shelves!

What's your view? Do you think supermarkets should cut back on some niche items so there is more room for essentials?

Let us know at bizlivepage@bbc.co.uk