Recent weekends have brought a cascade of bad news centering around the coronavirus, resulting in huge down days for the markets on Mondays. Lately, however, the trend seems to be improving (Figure 1). Monday’s 5% gain for the TSX was its best Monday performance in months, while the S&P 500’s 7% surge was its third-best daily performance over the past decade, according to Bloomberg data.
Monday’s rally was triggered by news that the regions that have been the worst affected by the coronavirus are seeing a leveling-off in new virus cases and fatalities. In Italy, the number of new cases and deaths is finally declining, suggesting that it may have “flattened the curve”, while Spain and France are on a similar, improving trajectory. Click here to read the rest of the Macroscope.
