Remembering that the vaccine isn’t actually here just yet, the markets accelerated their retreat this Tuesday afternoon.
Once again unable to make a lasting push above 30,000, the Dow Jones instead tumbled 350 points, falling from its all-time highs to dip a toe below 29,600.
This decline, far worse than where, say, the European markets were at the start of the session, came after a couple of headlines that dragged investors back into the pandemic present. Firstly, US retail sales missed estimates, at 0.3% against the 0.5% forecast, and the 1.6% seen last month – itself revised down from 1.9%.
Then there was news that California is hitting the ‘emergency brake’ on its reopening plans, reimposing lockdown measures on 40 counties in order to try and combat the surging numbers of covid-19 cases, a wave – soon to be tsunami – that the Trump administration seemingly has no interest in battling itself.
With the US opening lower the Eurozone indices had no choice but to remain in the red, the DAX and CAC falling 0.6% and 0.5% respectively.
The FTSE was the day’s hardest hit index, not only due to the various covid wakeup calls the session provided, but the Brexit deal optimism lifting the pound.
As Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin stated that both sides could see the ‘landing zones’ around an agreement, and Bloomberg reported that a breakthrough could be announced on Monday, sterling shot up half a percent against the dollar and 0.3% against the euro. This in turn contributed to the FTSE’s 100 point decline, forcing the UK index back to 6,325.
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