Weekly Market Review

The markets continue to focus on the coronavirus (Covid-19) as indexes around the globe declined sharply. The S&P 500 had one of its worst weeks since 2008 (-15.0%) and is now down -29.3% YTD.[1]

Equities markets had a huge bounce on Wednesday following the results of Super Tuesday primary elections. As normal for incumbents, Trump is the uncontested Republican nominee. However, the Democrats are divided between the moderate “establishment” (Biden, Buttigieg, Bloomberg, Klobuchar) v. the more progressive “fringe” candidates (Sanders, Warren).

There are over 89,200 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with 3,048 confirmed deaths. Over 2,800 of these deaths are in China.[1] A positive within these figures is that more than half of confirmed cases already have recovered. It’s difficult to estimate figures such as the mortality rate given the average time from first symptoms to death (or recovery) of 14 days and the lack of transparency from Chinese authorities.

Equity markets shrugged off coronavirus concerns until Thursday when China reported a large bump in confirmed cases after an apparent tapering. There are now 71,811 confirmed cases and 1,775 confirmed deaths from the latest outbreak,[1] now named Covid-19.

Equities rebounded last week after initial worries subsided over the coronavirus outbreak. Now there are 910 confirmed deaths, surpassing that of SARS and MERS.

Equity markets were in the red again last week on renewed concerns of the coronavirus outbreak. The number of confirmed cases is now at 17,485 with 362 of those fatal. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency on Thursday although it stated that travel restrictions were unnecessary.