Unprecedented quantitative expansion.
Archives of “April 2020” month
rssBen Graham writes a cranky but completely justified letter to the editor, published in @WSJ, July 12, 1962.
North Korea has extended its COVID-19 national emergency to the end of the year
Radio Free Asia with the report, an unnamed source
- a senior official in North Pyongan province, who requested anonymity due to fear of reprisal
“On the 23rd, the Central Party ordered the provincial quarantine command to extend the national emergency quarantine posture through the end of the year”
“[They] ordered stronger quarantine measures in response to the prolonged outbreak”
NK was slow to admit they had an outbreak. At least publicly.
Fitch downgrades Italy to BBB-, stable outlook
Fitch Ratings agency says the downgrade reflects the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Italy’s economy and fiscal position
- expects Italy’s govmt debt to GDP ratio to increase this year, by around 20%
- Fitch forecasts an 8% GDP contraction in 2020
- says Italy’s gross general government debt to GDP ratio will increase by around 20pp this year
- stable outlook partly reflects view that ECB’s net asset purchases will facilitate Italy’s substantial fiscal response to covid-19 pandemic
- downward pressure on Italy’s rating could resume if government does not implement credible economic growth & fiscal strategy
- says recession & economic policy response to covid-19 pandemic will result in sizeable deterioration of Italy’s budget balance this year
This is a negative input for euro
Link to Fitch for more … note this:
- In accordance with Fitch’s policies, the issuer appealed and provided additional information to Fitch that resulted in a rating action that is different than the original rating committee outcome.
Huh … reading between the lines on this it could have been a worse outcome for Italy?
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Note – S&P recently affirmed Italy at BBB/A-2 with an outlook negative.
And – the ECB will still accept Italy debt as collateral given their recent changes to accept debt which was eligible on April 7th.
Major indices give up earlier gains and close lower on the day
Nasdaq under pressure ahead of the Big 5 earnings
As mentioned in prior posts today, Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and Facebook will all report earnings this week. In advance of those risk events, market traders took profits selling each lower on the day. If you were to add Netflix to the mix (they reported last week), all 6 of those influential stocks fell more than the overall market (Nasdaq was down -1.40% on the day).
The final numbers for the major indices are showing:
- S&P index fell -15.09 points or -0.52% to 2863.39
- NASDAQ index fell -122.43 points or -1.4% to 8607.73
- Dow fell -32.23 points or -0.13% to 24101.55. Dow fell for the 1st time after rising the last 4 days in a row.
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Red dots represent fully loaded oil tanker ships “stranded” at sea due to no global demand for oil – approx cost per day per ship is $30,000/-.
Major European indices close higher on the day
Give up some of the gains for the day but still close solidly higher
The major European indices are ending the day with gains. However, some of those gains were eroded.
The provisional closes are showing:
- German Dax, +1.25%. The high reached +2.23%
- France’s CAC, +1.32%. The high reached +1.15%
- UKs FTSE 100 +1.85%. The high reached +2.24%
- Spain’s IBex +1.30%. The high reached +1.87%
- Italy’s FTSE MIB +1.8%, The high reached +3.23%
In the debt market, the benchmark 10 year yields fell across the board with Portugal and Spain down -5 and -4.5 bps. The UK yield fell only -1.0 bps.
What type of market participants use the lowest credible stablecoin?
Russia’s Novak: Oil prices won’t recover quickly as storage is full
Comments by Russian energy minister, Alexander Novak
- Global oil market may start rebalancing in 2H 2020
He also says that counting on the oil market balancing out the imbalance starting from next month once the OPEC+ deal is enforced. These are all pretty words but let’s see if they will walk the walk after talking the talk. Remember, Russia didn’t have the best track record in complying to output cuts in the previous OPEC+ agreements.
China’s Global Times editor says Trump has committed crime, has superb lying skills
Editor-in-chief of Chinese and English editions of the Global Times Hu Xijin is known for his forthright opinions.
His latest tweet directed as US President Trump::
Stop putting on a show. It is you and your team that should be held accountable for the huge losses of the US. Don’t you know that you have acted incompetently and have committed the crime of dereliction of duty? The US political system has brought up your superb skills of lying.
This comes in response to Trump saying there are many ways to hold China accountable for COVID-19.
No love lost.
