Wednesday 22 January 2020

Markets fall as new virus spreads but “cash is trash”

Markets fell on Tuesday.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3 percent, the STOXX Europe 600 fell 0.1 percent and the Shanghai Composite tumbled 1.4 percent.

Markets fell after Chinese health authorities confirmed that a new virus that has killed four people so far in the country can spread through human contact just ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.

“The ultimate fear is that this may spread with the tremendous human flow during the holiday,” said Alex Wong, managing director at Ample Finance in Hong Kong.

Declines in US and European markets were limited though.

“The reaction in markets suggests that the virus fears aren’t necessarily going to be the main story... not enough that good news wouldn’t break through and help them reduce losses,” said Connor Campbell, analyst at British financial spread better Spreadex.

Indeed, on Monday, the International Monetary Fund announced that it forecasts world economic growth to accelerate to 3.3 percent in 2020 from 2.9 percent last year, while fund managers in January were the most optimistic on global growth in nearly two years as they kept their cash positions at the lowest level since 2013, according to a Bank of America survey.

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio went so far as to say on Tuesday: “Cash is trash.”

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