Archives of “April 7, 2020” day

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Coronavirus – UK PM Boris Johnson is receiving oxygen in intensive care unit

  
Analysis, Politics
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Comments from an unnamed official:

  • Johnson is receiving oxygen in intensive care unit
  • But is not on a ventilator
I said yesterday that being taken into hospital is not a sign that all is well. Same goes, but even more so, for being admitted to ICU.
The UK health system is already stretched for resources with the outbreak, and Boris Johnson would be the last person in the country to want to place more strain on the system with an unnecessary admission to intensive care. His condition is obviously very serious indeed. We all are wishing him well for a full and speedy recovery.

JP Morgan’s Dimon sees financial stress similar to the global financial crisis ahead

  
  Analysis
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Jamie Dimon is chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co.

On the coronavirus pandemic:
  • “At a minimum, we assume that it will include a bad recession combined with some kind of financial stress similar to the global financial crisis of 2008” 
  • More specifically for his firm, JPM earnings this year will be “down meaningfully”
  • 180,000, or about 70%, of the firm’s employees are working from home
  • JPM is paying around $1,000 to those whose jobs don’t allow them to work remotely
Adds:
  • people could return to work more quickly if governments made tests widely available
  • to determine who has recovered from the disease
  • “The country was not adequately prepared for this pandemic,”

Dimon is correct on the unpreparedness. Three months of denial from the very top of the US administration that there was even a problem has cause such a tragic escalation in the numbers of lives lost.

BlackRock on ‘unprecedented policy actions to limit the coronavirus shock’

  
  Analysis
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BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager (circa $7.4 trillion in assets under management)

Given the surging equity markets (more ion this in just a moment) the comments from their latest update might appear stale (ps. these below relate to a credit view, not equities) :
  • Unprecedented policy actions to limit the coronavirus shock and sharply lower valuations have improved the outlook for credit, in our view. 
  • Major central banks are committed to keep rates low and greatly expand their balance sheets. 
More specifically on stocks (bolding mine):
  • We previously downgraded global equities to neutral. The coronavirus outbreak is disrupting economic activity and supply chains. The outbreak also poses risks to corporate earnings, in our view. Accommodative monetary policy is a support. We now favour rebalancing back toward benchmark weights as markets fall.

Major US stock indices rocket higher into the close

  
Analysis, US Market
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Indices all close with gains of over 7%

The major US stock indices rocketed higher into the close.  Reports that another $1.5 trillion of stimulus was leaked to Wall Street executives may have been a catalyst. The major indices are closing with oversized gains with the S&P bringing up the rear with a impressive 7.03% rise
The final numbers are showing:
  • S&P index up 175.03 points or 7.03% to 2663.68
  • NASDAQ index rose 540.15 points or 7.33% to 7913.23
  • Dow rose 1627.46 points or 7.73% to 2679.99

All 30 Dow stocks rose on the day led by:

  • Boeing +19.26%
  • Raytheon Technologies, +15.28%
  • American Express, +13.91%
  • Visa, +11.46%
  • DuPont, +11.0%
  • McDonald’s, +10.4%
The laggards in the Dow 30 include:
  • Procter & Gamble, +2.25%
  • Pfizer, +2.62%
  • Exxon Mobil, +3.09%
  • Verizon, +3.25%
  • Johnson & Johnson, +4.03%
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