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Contents Click on the links below to get to the stuff you really really want. USA – Same problems: No financial relief package, rising virus cases, jobs market worsening; Stocks down (#USA) UK – Increased restrictions, lack of Brexit progress, falling oil prices; Pound and stocks down (#UK) Continental Europe – Sharp falls in stock prices as restrictions increased across different countries (#Europe) Elsewhere – Hong Kong and Indian stocks up, much of the rest down (#Elsewhere) WTF – What day is it? (#WTF) Links (#Useful) Numbers (#Numbers) Ts & Cs (#Ts+Cs)
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USA
The same concerns continued to weigh on investors’ minds yesterday: lack of a financial relief package, rising virus cases and more evidence that the jobs market is facing a tough time.
Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, said that Trump is willing to go beyond the $1.8 trillion offer that’s already been tabled by the Republicans but fellow Republican and leader of the Senate (upper house of the US parliament) rejected that.
The point appears to be that the Democrats seem to have decided that they don’t need to support a financial package before the election now that Biden’s lead has become so substantial. They’re happy to wait until after the election, and push the deal through on their terms (assuming they garner enough votes to be able to do so). Meanwhile, Trump is getting increasingly desperate and trying to get a deal through to salvage votes. I suspect his next trick will be to claim that a vaccine is just around the coroner, sorry, corner.
With nothing positive happening and negatives still prevailing, the S&P 500 closed 0.2% lower on the day.
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UK
It was all about increased restrictions to curtail the spread of the virus yesterday. The reality is, as US virus chief, Dr. Antony Fauci, has always maintained, that the virus will not disappear quickly and that a vaccine is likely to take over a year before it is ready.
So the near-term outlook for the UK economy looks bleak, hence the value of the pound sank. That would normally mean that the export-focused companies on the FTSE 100 would get a boost. If they did get one, it was totally eclipsed by the worries, hence the FTSE 100 closed 1.7% lower on the day.
Lack of progress in Brexit talks and falling oil prices didn’t help; BP and Shell make up around 15% of the entire index, so when oil prices drop, the FTSE 100 gets a kick in the teeth. The FTSE 250 is more domestically focused and has a much smaller oil sector, and that helped to limit its losses to 0.6% yesterday.
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Continental Europe
With virus restrictions being stepped up across a bunch of major European countries and no sign of anything positive coming out of the US in the form of a financial support package, stocks across the continent tanked. The Euro Stoxx 50 and German DAX both fell by 2.5% on the day with just one stock on the Euro Stoxx 50 rising and none on the DAX.
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Elsewhere
Stocks across the Asia Pacific region are a little less bad this morning. Hong Kong’s tech firms have led a bounce in the Hang Seng, and India’s stocks are doing their own thing with a 0.5% rise so far today. Elsewhere, it’s generally a negative prognosis with Japanese stocks down by around 0.9% overall.
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WTF (What’s The Fact?)
What day is it?
It’s dictionary day. Sometimes you can’t find the word you’re looking for because you don’t know the spelling – hence you’re search. Clearly dictionaries should have an index.
It’s also black cat day. Black cats are associated with bad luck in some cultures, perhaps those that don’t like the idea of animals that cover themselves in their own spit.
Happily, it’s also name-your-PC day. Decency precludes me from telling you what I call mine on a regular basis.
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Links
Investopedia (www.investopedia.com/dictionary/) – Loads of free explanations of financial terms including some helpful videos. Not 100% accurate, but a good starting point Guffipedia (ig.ft.com/sites/guffipedia/) – Lucy Kellaway of the FT has collected some painful examples of corporate people disappearing up their own analogies Guardian (www.theguardian.com) – Free to access website with a couple of decent columnists (e.g. Nils Pratley and Larry Elliott) Times of India (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) – Why use five words when 37 will do? Daily Mail (www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/07/the-war-on-stupid-people/485618) – Click it. I dare you.
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———————————————————— 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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