Markets rose on Wednesday.
The S&P 500 rose 1.1 percent to a record high, the STOXX Europe 600 jumped 1.2 percent and the Shanghai Composite rose 1.3 percent.
“Today’s rebound is being driven by rumors about some progress made on the virus, vaccines that are being worked on and efforts to slow down the spread,” said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab.
Nevertheless, with the number of infected cases and death toll from the coronavirus originating from China still rising globally, there appears to be a disconnet between the financial markets and science.
“People are still willing to hang onto equities because they haven’t been scared enough,” said Nate Thooft, global head of asset allocation at Manulife Asset Management.
As an example, Scott Ladner, chief investment officer for Horizon Investments, said that “we don’t think the impact is going to be long-lasting or so severe that there can’t be governmental policies to help blunt the impact”.
In the meantime, though, health authorities are taking the virus outbreak seriously.
“We’re preparing as if this is a pandemic,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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