Once again choosing to turn a blind eye to the negatives, the European indices picked up the baton left by the Dow Jones last night, continuing to rebound sharply higher.
Though Wednesday saw another alarming number of deaths in the UK and US, the Dow Jones finished up yesterday’s session close to 800 points higher, investors choosing to focus on the fact that the lockdown in Wuhan has now been partially lifted after 11 weeks.
That seems to have provided something of a light at the end of the tunnel for the Western markets, a sign that this thing will, eventually, be halted.
In response the FTSE added 140 points, striking 5800 for the first time in effectively a fortnight. What is notable about the index’s gains is that they come despite the troubling fact the UK’s economy contracted by 0.1% in the 3 months to February – that’s before the full impact of coronavirus became felt.
Elsewhere the DAX crossed 10550 as it rose 230 points, with the CAC back above 4500 thanks to a 2.1% increase.
As for the Dow Jones, it is looking to add another 250 points this afternoon, enough to push it towards a one-month peak of nearly 23700.
There are a couple of things that could derail Thursday’s lovefest, however. OPEC and its fellow oil producing countries are set to meet, in a get-together that could produce a price war-ending agreement between Russia and Saudi Arabia. A lack of deal could really harm the market’s, and especially FTSE’s, hopes of ending this abbreviated week on the front foot.
Of course Thursday also means its jobless claims time – another peak into America’s brewing unemployment crisis. So far the country has seen 2 record-breaking readings in a row, followed up by an alarming nonfarm number last Friday. Today analysts are forecasting another 5 million unemployment claims, though god knows what the actual figure will be.
Yet investors have proved to be remarkably sanguine in the face of these unprecedented readings, shrugging off the various jobs numbers for one reason or another. It’s almost as if they don’t really care about people losing their jobs. Will they be as blasé this Thursday?
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