Archives of “March 26, 2020” day

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US stocks open with gains as they digest the record claims without trouble

  
  Analysis

Stimulus passed and so has the claims data

The US stocks are opening with gains and moving higher in the 1st few minutes of trading after digesting the record initial jobless claims and cheering the passing of the stimulus measures.
The snapshot of the current markets are showing:
  • S&P index up 45 points or 1.82% at 2520.58
  • NASDAQ index up 124 points or 1.68% at 7508.58
  • Dow up 448 points or 2.12% at 21649.50.

Japan says that economic conditions are ‘severe’, worst view in nearly 7 years

  
Analysis, Economy

Japan downgrades its economic assessment for the month of March

Japan
  • Sees economy in a ‘severe situation, extremely depressed by the coronavirus’
  • First time removing the word ‘recovering’ since July 2013
  • Conditions likely to remain severe due to the influence of the disease
  • Economy is worsening at a pace comparable to when the 2011 earthquake struck
  • And towards levels last seen during the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008
  • The damage is as bad as those two events put together
The prior assessment can be found here. This doesn’t come as a surprise as we are seeing an unprecedented decline in economic sentiment and real conditions across the globe.
Expect this view to stay the course so long as the virus outbreak continues to keep the world in lockdown mode, with Japan also on the verge of starting their own.

Nikkei 225 closes lower by 4.51% at 18,664.60

  
Analysis, Forex

A rough day for Japanese stocks as Asian equities mostly fall

Nikkei 26-03

The Nikkei is the biggest loser in the region and Japanese stocks are not helped by the fall in SoftBank shares today, after Moody’s downgraded the company’s rating further from Ba1 to Ba3 yesterday – despite the company calling the move as “biased and mistaken”.
The Hang Seng is down by 0.8% while the Shanghai Composite is down by 0.4%, although there are decent gains in Australia (+2.3%) and India (+3.3%) on the day.
That said, with US futures sitting just over 1% lower currently, it is setting up a softer risk tone ahead of European morning trade. As such, risk/commodity currencies are on the back foot with AUD/USD down to 0.5915 currently – lower by 0.7% today.
Meanwhile, USD/JPY is also sitting lower as the yen is the best performing major currency amid a further drop in bond yields. The pair is currently trading at 110.60.
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