Fear of coronavirus second wave stalks stock markets

A man looks on in front of an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Nanjing - Reuters

London/Tokyo (Reuters): Global stocks and oil prices fell on Wednesday as fears about a second wave of coronavirus infections gripped financial markets.

Investors, many facing steep losses due to the pandemic-driven shakeout in assets over the past few months, have also had to contend with renewed US-China trade tensions.

MSCI’s index of global shares was down 0.3%. The pan-European STOXX 600 index slipped 1.6%. Banks acted as the drag after a number of negative updates.

Shares in Deutsche Bank fell 4.4% after it was reported that top managers will waive one month of fixed pay in an effort to cut costs, while fellow German lender Commerzbank and the Netherland’s ABN Amro slumped following first quarter losses.

“Earning season is largely behind us and we have entered the phase two of COVID-19 as deconfinement of economies begins, and that is creating a lot of uncertainties on a daily basis, which is weighing on markets,” said Francois Savary, chief investment officer at Swiss wealth manager Prime Partners.

“We don’t think this is the start of a new correction. Markets went too far, too fast and this is the consolidation.”

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan erased an early decline and rose 0.3%. US stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis, reversed earlier gains to fall 0.2%.

Oil markets, which have plummeted this year due to a combination of a collapse in demand and a supply glut, lost further ground.

Treasury yields also inched lower amid caution before a speech by US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and rising speculation the United States could one day adopt negative interest rates.

Leading US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci on Tuesday warned lawmakers that a premature lifting of lockdowns could lead to additional outbreaks of the deadly coronavirus, which has killed 80,000 Americans and brought the economy to its knees.

Fauci’s comments hammered Wall Street stocks overnight, underlining fragile investor sentiment which has in recent sessions swung between optimism over some easing in lockdowns globally and anxiety about a fresh spike in virus cases.

The mood was further soured by proposed legislation by a leading US Republican senator that would authorise President Donald Trump to impose sanctions on China if it fails to give a full account of events leading to the coronavirus outbreak.

Stock markets have rebounded sharply in recent weeks as the spread of the novel coronavirus slowed in some countries in Asia and Europe, while parts of the US economy and Europe began to reopen after weeks of lockdowns. However, some investors worry that a rush to re-open factories and shops may be premature.

The New Zealand dollar slumped to a six-month low after the country’s central bank doubled its quantitative easing program and said it has asked commercial banks to be ready for negative interest rates by year’s end.

The US dollar nursed losses as traders braced for Powell’s speech, which will cover economic issues and may offer hints on whether negative rates are a viable policy option.The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes traded at 0.6606%. The two-year yield stood at 0.1629%, above a record low of 0.1050% hit on Friday.

In Europe, the German 10-year government bond yield, which had risen around 8 basis points since May 4, changed direction and fell around 3 bps as demand for the safe debt increased.

The Italian 10-year government bond yield, which is the proxy for riskier peripheral European bonds, rose 2 bps.

Trump on Tuesday again pushed the Fed to adopt negative rates, a hot topic in financial markets since last week when US money markets started to price in a chance of rates below zero.

Oil futures fell as worries about the virus overcame hope that output cuts would put a floor under prices. US crude fell 1.6% to $25.36 a barrel. Brent crude LCOc1 fell 2.6% to $29.19 per barrel.