Financial news and actionable analysis
On this page, you will find our latest news and analysis of the Coronavirus, and how it is affecting the world’s financial markets.
Special Article: Revisiting SARS and How the New Coronavirus Outbreak Can Affect Financial Markets
In January 2019, news of a SARS-like coronavirus hit the newswires. It began in the Chinese province of Wuhan and is said to have come from animals. Its symptoms include a runny nose, cough, fever, and difficulty breathing. In more severe cases, it can lead to kidney failure and death. Officially the new virus is called 2019-nCoV, and it quickly infected over 800 people in less than two weeks. The death toll also rose from 3 to 25 in a matter of days. Countries outside of China soon began recording cases of the coronavirus from Japan, Thailand, South Korea, the US, and Australia.
To curb the spread of the disease, the Chinese government imposed a travel ban for the city of Wuhan. It was a bold move considering that Wuhan is a large city of 11 million people and is considered a significant transport hub. Soon after, eight more Chinese cities were limited from travel.
Consequently, the infection sparked public fears. It did not take long for that fear to affect financial markets. Among those adversely hit was the Hang Seng Index. The proximity of the financial hub to the epicenter took its toll on stocks in the retail, transportation, and property sectors. The Shanghai Composite Index initially benefitted from the news thanks to increased sales by pharmaceutical and mask-producing companies. However, risk aversion quickly caught on, and the Chinese stock index began trading lower.
On the other hand, safe-haven assets like gold and the Japanese yen saw increased demand as fears of the coronavirus mounted.
The bloodbath on the S&P 500 has finally stalled, as the index opened higher this Wednesday. The rout in the technology shares abated as the tech index gained 2% to fuel a decent 1% recovery at the time of writing. All 11 subsectors on the S&P 500 are trading higher, […]
The Nasdaq 100 is witnessing a considerable selloff this Thursday after technology stocks plunged. The Nasdaq 100 is now trading at 11,837.5 as some of the biggest companies in the technology sector are tanking. Stocks like Apple and Tesla are among those being pounded by sellers. Tesla is down for […]
Copper price is trading lower today but still trades at two-year highs. Today’s pause has not ended bullish speculation on the red metal, as Research Analysts at Commerzbank believe that copper price still has some bullish momentum left in its wings. There is meat to the Commerzbank projections for copper […]
Moderna Inc is back in the news as it experienced a 5.75% jump in its share price today. The spike in Moderna share price came as the company presented new data from trials of its coronavirus vaccine candidate. In a market brief monitored by Reuters, Moderna Inc reported on Wednesday […]
The S&P 500 has surged to new highs this Monday after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of plasma in the treatment of coronavirus patients. US President Donald Trump has hailed the use of convalescent plasma, granted under emergency authorization as “a historic breakthrough”. The treatment […]
Boeing share price continues to flounder as nations ponder whether to open their airspaces to international flights or not. These decisions are being delayed in many countries as governments, and their national aviation authorities try to work out protocols for testing and possible quarantines of inbound passengers. While the wrangling […]
Retail sales data from the United States came in mixed today, but are much worse than for the previous month, showing that the rise in coronavirus cases after the July 4 holiday weekend crushed the retail space. According to data from the Census Board, Retail Sales came in at 1.2%, […]
A boost from the big five on the Nasdaq 100 composite index is boosting that index by 2.25% on the day. The US markets have made a positive impression on the day, after yesterday’s losing session, with the Nasdaq 100 getting a big push from stocks of Apple, Amazon, Facebook, […]
The Nasdaq 100 is losing steam after China imposed sanctions on 11 Americans, in a retaliatory move following the US government’s decision on Tencent and ByteDance, Chinese companies that operate the WeChat and TikTok apps respectively. US policy actions in Hong Kong are also thought to be a reason behind […]
