Market news - 16 March 2020 - Sarasin & Partners UK

Coronavirus (COVID-19) has caused considerable drawdowns in almost all major asset classes this week. The Italian government announced a state of lockdown at the beginning of the week, advising all citizens to stay at home unless for emergencies and closing all businesses except for pharmacies and food shops. On Wednesday, the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic as the number of cases exceeds 118,000 in 114 countries
Equity markets had their worst day in over 30 years on Thursday as President Trump imposed a 30-day travel ban on travel from most European countries, effective from Friday
Boris Johnson spoke on Thursday evening to confirm the UK response to the spread of the virus – shut downs will be delayed until closer to the expected peak of the virus in an effort to protect the NHS from an overwhelming peak in patient numbers. Emmanuel Macron also announced that France will close all schools as they brace for a surge in the number of virus cases

Various central banks have intervened in order to soften the falls in financial markets. The Federal Reserve offered $1.5 trillion in repo operations to be implemented over three tranches, the UK announced a fiscal package of £30bn or 1.3% GDP in 2020-21 in their budget announced this week and the Bank of England cut rates by 50bp to 0.25%, and the ECB committed an additional EUR120 billion of quantitative easing on top of the present 20 billion per month alongside cheaper loans to businesses
Over the weekend the Fed then announced a 100bp cut in interest rates (back to the zero bound) and another $700bn in QE purchases to be implemented “over the next few months”
Japan, Canada, Australia and other have also adopted similar measures to support the economy during the ongoing crisis
The private sector has also offered support in tackling the Coronavirus outbreak. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mastercard and British research charity Wellcome have come together to form a COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator and committed up to $125 million in initial funding

Brent Crude remained at depressed levels, trading at $35 per barrel at the time of writing, as the price war continues between Saudia Arabia and Russia. Following no agreement at the OPEC meeting last week, the oil price dropped 24% on Monday, its sharpest one-day decline in nearly 30 years
Equity markets saw the biggest declines over the week, with the ACWI down c.a. 20%, and circuit-breakers triggered twice during the week to curb panic-selling. Airlines and travel stocks were inevitably the hardest hit as further travel bans were enforced, but the selloff was indiscriminate across geographies. The US dollar strengthened on balance and Treasury yields fell further as investors sought safe haven assets
Despite the Fed action announced over the weekend markets continued to spiral rapidly downwards on Monday morning, increasing the possibility that a total closure of markets may be contemplated

Market news 16 March 2020