US stocks jump, “worst yet to come” for COVID-19

Markets were mixed on Monday.

Early in the day, Asian markets fell, with the Nikkei 225 tumbling 2.3 percent.

However, markets turned up later in the day. The STOXX Europe 600 rose 0.4 percent and the S&P 500 jumped 1.5 percent.

Stocks rose in the US and Europe despite COVID-19 cases worldwide passing 10 million on Sunday.

“If things get really bad, the Fed will step in with additional monetary easing and basically reach into their bag of tricks to do whatever they need to support the market,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.

Still, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said on Monday that “the path forward for the economy is extraordinarily uncertain and will depend in large part on our success in containing the virus”.

And at the moment, success in containing the virus appears to be not at hand.

“This is really the beginning,” said Dr Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Monday of the recent surge in cases in the US.

“Although many countries have made some progress, globally, the pandemic is actually speeding up,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, on Monday. “The worst is yet to come.”