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Contents
USA – Rise in coronavirus cases outside China sent investors into the dollar; Choppy day’s trading leaves energy stocks leading indices down
UK – Domestically focused stocks and bond yields dropped on worries over the coming budget and infected people; Lower pound lifts exporters
Continental Europe – Italian stocks recovered, rest in stasis
Elsewhere – Japanese and Korean stocks down again
WTF – Carol Vorderman
Links
Numbers
Ts & Cs
USA Spokespeople from the World Health Organisation stated that there were now more coronavirus (or Covid-19 if you prefer) cases outside of China than within. The bombshell word “pandemic” has been bandied about. This suggests that it would be set to infect countless numbers of people across international borders causing illness and distress in an insidious fashion, much like “Keeping up with the Kardashians”.
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That continued the quick march of investors into perceived “haven” investments such as the dollar. As a result, the dollar rose in value compared to other currencies.
President Trump is set to brief the public on the response to the viral spread. Some are expecting him to announce a bombing campaign and the building of a wall twice the height of any known Mexican viruses.
Despite such a horrific prospect, US stocks got off to a positive start, as folk began to wonder if stocks had fallen far enough for the time being and that maybe, just maybe, the virus won’t be as bad as spending time with a vapid family of privileged air-heads. I could, of course, be referring to any life-form, not just ones living in California.
And then those worries returned sending stocks down to leave the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 down by around 0.5% on the day. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite managed to post a 0.2% gain as the worst of the worries was felt by the energy sector.
UK In the UK, the worries were reflected by the falling value of the pound relative to the dollar and the falling value of stocks outside the export-heavy FTSE 100. The pound fell from nearly $1.300 to around $1.292 with concerns over the coming government budget announcement giving some observers cause for potential disappointment.
With the pound heading down, exporters had a bit of a boon and around two-thirds of the FTSE 100 companies’ revenues are generated overseas. So up went the FTSE100 by 0.4%.
Healthcare companies had a good time as folk continue to look to them for a virus that they can sell for whatever the heck they want. Even NMC managed to add to recent gains closing 6.6% higher on the day, much the highest climber on the FTSE 100. Retailers and house-builders had a bad day.
The FTSE 250 dropped by 0.4%, reflecting concerns over the domestic outlook, but the broader FTSE All Share managed to nudge upwards led by healthcare and utilities companies.
The overall sense of worry continues to hold sway though if bonds are anything to go by. The demand for and prices of government bonds continued to rise sending the benchmark 10-year Gilt yield down to 0.50%; it had been around 0.87% at the beginning of the year.
Continental Europe Investors appeared to be buying in the dip as they say. The Italian FTSE MIB managed to drag itself up by 1.4% as investors returned to Italian stocks that appeared to offer some attractive prices following several days of substantial price drops.
The broader picture was more tentative with the Euro Stoxx 50 and German DAX closing within 0.1% of their respective starting prices. The DAX closed lower as investors wondered how Germany’s exporters would fare over coming weeks.
Elsewhere Stocks in Japan and Korea have taken another hit this morning as its coronavirus cases continue to worry investors. The Nikkei 225 and Kospi were down 2.5% and 1.1% at the time of writing. Investors across the rest of the region are in watch-and-wait mode leaving major indices not too far from their starting positions.
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Carol Vorderman
The former arithmetic expert from Countdown has been plying her trade doing daytime TV ads for this and that lately.
It would appear that this has helped to pay for some reconstruction that went beyond her finances. Her stretched facial complexion looks as though she’s taken two from the top row, one from the the middle and three from the bottom.
Links Investopedia – Loads of free explanations of financial terms including some helpful videos. Not 100% accurate, but a good starting point
Guffipedia – Lucy Kellaway of the FT has collected some painful examples of corporate people disappearing up their own analogies
Guardian – Free to access website with a couple of decent columnists (e.g. Nils Pratley and Larry Elliott)
Times of India – Why use five words when 37 will do?
Daily Mail – Click it. I dare you.
IMPORTANT
This is my opinion. Yes I read a lot and share what I’ve read with you, but this content remains my opinion. It’s NOT advice. If you take my advice – don’t take my advice. Any decisions you make about investments, your hairstyle or whether or not to eat marzipan are entirely at your own behest. If you are too stupid to recognise the devil’s ear wax when you see it, then you’re on your own.
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