The VIX is very close to the 2008 peak.
Archives of “March 16, 2020” day
rssCircuit breaker levels to watch in the S&P 500 later today
How low can you go?
US futures hit limit down very early in the trading day and with European equities pointing to a 8-9% drop across the board, it looks like US stocks will be headed for an extremely rough open later in the cash market (S&P ETF down by nearly 10% now).
Here are the key circuit breaker levels to watch today:
- Level 1: 2,521.25 or down 7% from Friday close
- Level 2: 2,358.59 or down 13% from Friday close
- Level 3: 2,168.82 or down 20% from Friday close
If anything else, also keep an eye out on the key trendline support that stretches back all the way to 2009, currently near the 2,500 level. Clearly, this did not age very well:
UK PM spokesman: 8 million people in hospitals is reasonable worst-case
Are they not going to take any measures to cope with the outbreak at all?
As great as the NHS is, can they really cope with a situation of millions of people being hospitalised at any given point in time? Most countries are already struggling to even cope with a 0.01% outbreak (in the thousands as of now) in the general population so this is a scary prospect for the government to even be considering.
Total precious metals assets held by China’s Big Five Banks reached a record high at ¥645.7 billion yuan in H1 2019.
Konnichiwa Japanization
Eurostoxx futures -4.5% in early European trading
The selloff transfers over to Europe in early trades
- German DAX futures -4.7%
- French CAC 40 futures -4.8%
- UK FTSE futures -3.6%
With Asian equities trading at the lows for the day (Hang Seng down 4.4%) in the final stages, the risk averse mood looks to be hitting Europe hard to start the morning.
US futures also are staying pressured after hitting limit down earlier today, with 10-year Treasury yields down by over 25 bps to 0.70% currently.
Italy says that virus outbreak still has not reached its peak in the country
Comments by Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte
- Weeks ahead are the most risky
- Maximum precaution is needed but there is no need for new bans
- Says Italians need to respect the existing ones
- Approved measures are not sufficient to support businesses
Much like China, it will be many more weeks before Italy can actually start to phase out the current lockdown. Over the weekend, France and Spain are among those starting to take similar actions and this will further dampen euro area economic conditions.
Nikkei 225 closes lower by 2.46% at 17,002.04
The Nikkei closes near the lows for the day after the BOJ policy decision
Japanese stocks held on to hope for the longest of time today, awaiting the BOJ decision but ultimately those hopes were overwhelmed by fear as the central bank appears to have disappointed the market with no change to rates or JGB yields target.
ETF purchases were very much expected but the BOJ appears to be catching a falling knife with their latest ploy and the market is not convinced as the Nikkei spiked higher initially before erasing those gains to fall by over 2% today.
The Hang Seng and Chinese equities are also down at their lows for the day now, with the former down by over 3.6% while the Shanghai Composite is down by 2.4%.
Amidst the gloom – Italian hospital saves Covid-19 patients lives by 3D printing valves
No, not forex, but some human ingenuity, creativity and hard work in application:
- massive number of people who require intensive care and oxygenation in order to live through the infection long enough for their antibodies to fight it. This means that the only way to save lives at this point – beyond prevention – is to have as many working reanimation machines as possible.
- a Northern Italian hospital needed a replacement valve for a reanimation device and the supplier had run out with no way to get more in a short time.
- a company in the area, Isinnova, brought a 3D printer directly to the hospital and, in just a few hours, redesigned and then produced the missing piece
- On the evening of Saturday 14th (the next day) Massimo reported that “the system works”
- At the time of writing, 10 patients are accompanied in breathing by a machine that uses a 3D printed valve.
What great news amidst the crisis.
China data – huge collapse in industrial production, retail sales, jump in unemployment
January-February combined industrial output down 13.5% y/y (vs. expected -3%)
- Jan-Feb combined retails sales down 20.5% y/y (expected -4%)
- Fixed investment down 24.5% y/y for the combined two months, expected -2%
A heads up of what is to come around the globe? Hubei, the epicentre of the cov1 COVID-19 outbreak is a critical manufacturing centre in China. Perhaps other countries will not take so hard a hit, but those that have been slow in response are going to get it the worst.