Analyst: Coronavirus Causing ‘Paralysing Uncertainty’ in Stock Markets, Investors Looking to Gold
Trillions of dollars have been wiped off stock markets across the world since the outbreak of the Coronavirus.
Published: 17 March 2020
The outbreak of the Covid-19 virus is causing “paralysing uncertainty” across the world’s largest stock exchanges, a New York-based analyst told Equities Daily on 17 March.
“The virus has triggered fear in the market and investors are reacting poorly. We estimate it will take at least 6-9 months for market activity to go back to normal,” the analyst added.
Meanwhile, another source said investors are now looking to gold as a safe haven for their funds in these turbulent times, as they often do in tumultuous periods for the stock market.
Trillions of dollars were wiped off US and European stock exchanges in February over fears of the Covid-19 virus becoming widespread outside China and causing costly disruption. The sell-off has continued into March, despite the best efforts of central banks.
The Federal Reserve’s decision to slash interest rates to 0 percent failed to calm investors, with major US stocks continuing to plummet. READ: Spread Betting Guide: Benefits, Best Online Brokers and More Travel stocks were hit particularly hard, with several countries and large corporations implementing travel bans in a bid to curb the spread of the virus, which has already resulted in close to 200,000 cases.
The Covid-19 outbreak proved to be the last straw for British airliner FlyBe, which was already in dire straits before the outbreak, and collapsed in early March as ticket sales plummeted over travel concerns.
The outbreak, which started in China’s Hubei Province in late 2019 but wasn’t reported until a few weeks later, has resulted in around 8,000 deaths. Dozens of countries, including the US, Britain, Australia, Italy and Austria, have reported cases. Over 80,000 patients have recovered from the disease so far.
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