Gold bars to be exempt from tariffs, White House clarifies
By David Randall
NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - Plunging U.S. crude oil
prices pulled global equity markets lower Monday, kicking off a
busy week of data and earnings that will further reveal the
economic damage of the coronavirus pandemic.
Assets like the dollar and government debt rose as investors
edged into safe havens.
With some global storage facilities nearly at capacity, the
'front-month' May benchmark U.S. crude contract CLc1 fell
40.56% to $10.86 per barrel - the lowest since 1998. Brent
LCOc1 was at $26.05, down 7.23% on the day.
"For oil there is a bit of a technical story (with storage),
but still, if energy consumption is down 30% and OPEC reduces
supply by 10%, there is still a large gap," said Rabobank's head
of macro strategy, Elwin de Groot.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS shed
1.18%., following broad declines in Europe and Asia.
In early trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial
Average .DJI fell 458.91 points, or 1.89%, to 23,783.58, the
S&P 500 .SPX lost 40.56 points, or 1.41%, to 2,834 and the
Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 65.40 points, or 0.76%, to
8,584.74
The S&P 500 .SPX has rallied 30% from its March low,
thanks in part to the extreme easing steps taken by the Federal
Reserve and a $2.3 trillion stimulus package passed by Congress.
Yet analysts are likely underestimating the impact of the
global economic lockdown on earnings results, noted Jonathan
Golub, chief U.S. equity strategist at Credit Suisse Securities.
The United States has by far the world's largest number of
confirmed coronavirus cases, with more than 750,000 infections
and over 40,500 deaths, according to a Reuters tally.
Against a basket of its rivals =USD , the U.S. currency
rose 0.2% to 99.98 and edged closer towards a three-year high of
near 103 hit last month Bond markets also suggested investors expected tough
economic times ahead. Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last
rose 12/32 in price to yield 0.6179%, from 0.656% late on
Friday, compared with 1.91% at the start of the year.
"We are dealing with scales of declining economic activity
that nobody has seen before. The potential hit to GDP in the
second quarter this year will probably far exceed what we saw at
the worst point of the financial crisis," Capital Group
economist Robert Lind said in a note.
Selling pressure on Italian government bonds has returned in
the past week, undoing some of the benefits of the European
Central Bank's massive bond-buying scheme, after euro zone
politicians failed to agree to common debt issuance as a means
of addressing the crisis.
Italian Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte used an interview with
Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Monday to repeat calls for the
EU to issue common euro zone bonds to demonstrate the bloc's
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Global assets http://tmsnrt.rs/2jvdmXl
Global currencies vs. dollar http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
Emerging markets http://tmsnrt.rs/2ihRugV
MSCI All Country World Index Market Cap http://tmsnrt.rs/2EmTD6j
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