The Reddit revolution has done a number on the European and US markets, scaring investors away from the message board-led volatility.
Of course, it’s not the GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME)-saga alone. The vaccine rollout process in Europe has hit a confidence-undermining road bump this week, with the public spat between the UK, EU and AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN), while an end to lockdown in the UK appears nowhere in sight.
It is telling how risk-off investors are feeling this Friday that news the Novavax Inc (NASDAQ:NVAX) covid-19 vaccine is nearly 90% effective – including against the UK variant – failed to induce the same dose of optimism as previous announcements of its kind.
Instead the markets opened Friday awash with red. The FTSE fell another 0.9%, this time despite the pound’s own reversal against the dollar and the euro. Completing the erasure of the blockbuster growth that opened 2021, the UK index is now trading under 6,470, its worst price for over 5 weeks.
The DAX, which had clawed back some of its recent losses on Thursday, shed 1%, kicking it back below 13,530. Ignoring a better than forecast Q4 GDP reading – admittedly France still contracted by 1.3% in the final quarter of 2020 – the CAC dropped 1.1% to 5,450.
Friday’s unsettled trading currently looks set to carry into this afternoon. Unlike on Thursday, where the Dow Jones rode in and saved the day, the US index is heading for a 270 point decline, one that’d send it back to 30,330.
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