After a headline-grabbing quarter, July got off to a subdued start, another muddled open for a market that doesn’t quite know what to do with itself.
There was plenty of reason for justified panic. Once again the USA saw a record one-day increase in covid-19 cases. On Tuesday they surged by 47,000, a number that will no doubt be beaten this Wednesday.
Adding to that, Dr Anthony Fauci warned he ‘would not be surprised’ if the US soon saw 100,000 fresh cases a day.
And, in a fat middle finger to the rest of the world, America has bought up the global supply of remdesivir, effectively taking the covid-19-treating drug off the market for the next 3 months minimum.
Yet, readjusting to the new normal, Europe was pretty sanguine. The FTSE dropped a relatively mild 0.4%, as did the CAC, while the DAX was unchanged at 12340.
The Dow Jones is currently facing a similar start, even if it is early days, with the futures suggesting an unchanged open of 25770.
With online sales more than doubling during its first quarter – i.e. the 16 weeks to 27th June – and like-for-likes up 8.2% (excluding fuel), Sainsbury’s had reason to cheer on Wednesday.
However, those figures did come with a fairly sizeable caveat: coronavirus-related costs, such as a steep drop-off in clothing sales and staffing issues, are set to hit £500 million. That means the benefits of its sales surge – which the supermarket expects to slow down as lockdown measures continue to ease – will end up being used to offset problems elsewhere.
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