Markets mixed, “recovery likely to be less V-shaped”

Markets were mixed on Thursday.

The S&P 500 edged up 0.1 percent but the STOXX Europe 600 fell 0.7 percent and the Nikkei 225 fell 0.4 percent.

Concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic continued to be the dominating theme.

In the US, Arizona reported a record-high number of new confirmed cases while Texas saw an 11 percent daily spike in hospitalisations for COVID-19 on Wednesday. California, meanwhile, reported its largest-ever daily increase of COVID-19 cases.

In China, Beijing has reportedly closed schools and cancelled flights to contain the new wave of COVID-19 cases.

“For all the optimism that central bank and government stimulus will help alleviate more permanent economic scarring, there is rising concern that any recovery is likely to be less V-shaped and more a long U-shaped type of rebound,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

The Asian Development Bank said in a report on Thursday that developing Asia will “barely grow” in 2020 as “this will not be a V-shaped recovery”.