Some 100 years have passed since the Spanish Influenza pandemic, and around 300 since composer Antonio Vivaldi wrote “The Four Seasons.” After a turbulent 2020, the impact of coronavirus in 2021 can be divided into four different periods with distinct reactions in markets.
The coronavirus is rampant and the variant is spreading at an alarming rate.
As more cases of the more contagious variant of the coronavirus are detected around the world, there's growing concern among scientists that the nations have not done enough...
The COVID19 pandemic that currently remains has clearly revealed the world’s most fragile economies.
In 2020, the Nordic countries followed a similar pattern to most other countries.
The first case of Coronavirus (COVID-19) disease appeared in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. Since early 2020, this disease has spread rapidly, generating medical crises and lockdowns around the world.
During the first months, investors responded with a sharp panic-selling response to the possible economic collapse, typical to such black-swan events.
The pandemic had wide-ranging and several impacts upon financial markets, including stocks, bonds, and commodities.
It also had a substantial influence on businesses around the world. The uncertainty related to lockdown durations and economic recovery left many businesses closed and hit households hard.
Several pharmaceutical firms are coming out with encouraging results from covid vaccine trials, and hopes for a cure are starting to boost markets again. Nevertheless, the unstoppable growth in cases and doubts about the economic recovery exacerbate uncertainty about business and societal structures, potentially causing jitters in financial markets moving forward.
The US coronavirus outbreak will likely get worse in coming weeks, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Sunday while speaking at an NBC event, while adding that hospitals around the country are reporting shortages of ICU beds for patients.
The US-based rating agency Moody’s Investors Service the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorization to Pfizer Inc’s coronavirus vaccine is credit positive for the American pharma giant, per Reuters.
In the week of holidays the market is very dynamic. The key fundamental and geopolitical news comes one after another. The extended travel bans in Europe due to the new virus strain in the United Kingdom is one of the factors but the end date of Brexit is the other factor to influence the dynamic of the markets.
In this fraught American political season, every policy difference, every analysis, and every choice, no matter how rational is portrayed as a product of party differences. Democrats long to lock down the economy pursuing pandemic suppression at all costs while Republicans seek to balance the dangers of the virus against the equally real damage to individuals and families from a shuttered economy. In reality, the responses of most state governments, Democratic and Republican, have been tailored to local needs and show less ideology than practicality, recognizing the dangers of the pandemic and the needs of people to work in a functioning economy. In most states, regardless of political affiliation, the emphasis is on restricting the spread of of the virus indoors in public venues like bars and restaurants and large private groups. Several states have added curfews to their list of restrictions or asked people to avoid non-essential travel. No governor has threatened a general economic shutdown.
The COVID19 pandemic that currently remains has clearly revealed the world’s most fragile economies. We need to look at the charts of a country’s stock index and we have the answer where to invest. It is quite simple after the drop of March
many economies were able to recover quickly, including by recording new historical peaks, but others have not been anywhere near recovering what has been lost since that month. This may be due to two factors:
1. COVID19 has hit the country’s
economy hard.
2. The country has not been able to recover because COVID19 has brought to light the fragility of its economy.
EUR/USD has been extending its falls and dips below 1.21 as US retail sales badly disappointed and the worsening mood is supporting the safe-haven dollar. Markets digest Biden's stimulus plan. US Consumer Sentiment declined to 59.2 points.
GBP/US has pared its gains and falls toward 1.36 as the dollar gains ground. The UK economy shrank by 2.6% in November, better than estimated. The UK is ramping up its vaccination campaign and PM Johnson is pressured to ease the lockdown.
The XAU/USD pair registered small daily gains on Thursday but struggled to extend its recovery amid a lack of significant fundamental drivers on Friday. As of writing, the pair was up 0.15% on a daily basis at $1,849.
Markets are on the back foot after Biden hinted about tax hikes while introducing stimulus. The safe-haven dollar is edging higher despite Powell's pledge to keep monetary policy accommodative.
USD has been strongly supported on what has shaped up to be a very much risk off final trading day of the week. Most G10/USD pairs have seen significant weakness, aside from CHF/USD and JPY/USD, given that the two currencies are also considered “safe havens”.
