Australia 200

In our note on Friday, we asked whether the relative calm viewed on Wall Street on Thursday night was the beginning of a display of resilience for global equity markets or the calm before the next storm. One of the dark clouds highlighted was a delay by U.S. Congress to approve a now $2tn fiscal stimulus package to counter the impact of Covid-19. ...

On the eve of Friday the 13th, U.S. equity indices suffered their largest one day fall since the 1987 stock market crash. Globally, key equity markets have exceeded most downside expectations stemming from Covid-19 and are now approximately -30% below their highs from just four weeks ago.

Overnight, validation for yesterday’s sharp selloff in key Asian stock markets, as European and U.S. equity markets fell in some cases by the largest amount since 2008, including a 2000 point fall for the Dow Jones. I am old enough to remember when the Dow Jones index falling by 150 points was a big deal! Covid-19 concerns have been inflamed by the...