Stock markets fall as coronavirus pushes UK bond yields to record lows – business live

Rolling coverage of economics, business and markets as investors search for safe havens amid economic fearsUS and UK 10-year bond yields hit all-time low; rally gains paceOil prices hit lowest in 2.5 years amid production cut doubts FTSE 100 loses 3.2% at midday; US futures suggest 2.2% fall Jaguar Land Rover admits that coronavirus will hit profits Norwegian under pressure as airlines struggle 1.49pm GMT Some coronavirus reactions (even if the markets aren’t really moving in response to it).Robert Alster, head of investment services at Close Brothers Asset Management, said:Coronavirus poses a threat to the nascent recovery in manufacturing, and the vital service sector.Before Covid-19 spread, the US economy was already showing symptoms of slowing, with weakening employment data likely to offer waning support to consumption growth. Disruption the virus has caused elsewhere in the world may cancel out the better momentum facilitated by progress on trade, but what matters more is the domestic impact on US consumption.In the midst of all of the reporting on Coronavirus this was potentially going to be the most easily missed non-farm payroll announcement in recent history. We had a strong healthy start to the year with January’s number being revised upwards from 225,000 to 273,000 and today’s number for February coming in much stronger than expected also at 273,000. Couple this with the panicked rate cut of 0.5% by the US Fed and it places the economy and the stock market in a great position.My only fear is a weaker [reading] may have had a larger impact and created the urgency for the US to consider further stimulus, which would have buoyed the market and helped calm fears about the risk Coronavirus could have on ebbing away business revenues over the near future. There is so much panic in the markets – in fact, the only time we have seen something similar to this was during the financial crisis. However, it is important to keep in mind that we have a serious discount available on the equity markets and it is about time to start preparing your shopping list. 1.40pm GMT The US employment data show an economy running pretty hot. It would have been looking very promising for President Donald Trump going into a November election – before the coronavirus put paid to that.In other circumstances the US Federal Reserve’s 0.5 percentage point emergency interest rate on Tuesday could well have been a rise.The pace of jobs growth over the past three months really is something: +184k in Dec, +273k in Jan, and +273k (again) in Feb, for a 3-month average rate of +243k.Data are noisy, etc, but that’s strong enough to suggest that the economy was really surging over recent months.Futures largely ignoring US employment data – US Opening Calls:#DOW 25392 -2.78%#SPX 2932 -3.03%#NASDAQ 8386 -3.30%#RUSSELL 1438 -2.90%#FANG 3319 -3.06%#IGOpeningCall Continue reading…
Via: Stock markets fall as coronavirus pushes UK bond yields to record lows – business live