{"id":168266,"date":"2020-04-07T07:10:45","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T11:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.countingpips.com\/?p=168266"},"modified":"2020-04-07T06:53:23","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T10:53:23","slug":"a-bumpy-road-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/2020\/04\/a-bumpy-road-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"A bumpy road ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"
April 7, 2020<\/div>
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By Hussein Sayed, Chief Market Strategist (Gulf & MENA), ForexTime<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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– The world has finally seen a glimpse of light at the end of this dark tunnel. The coronavirus outbreak is starting to level off across many countries and cities. Looking at the new daily infected cases and death toll from Spain, Italy, Germany and France, all of those countries seem to be heading into a downward trajectory. Meanwhile, in the US, the governors of New York, Louisiana and New Jersey pointed to cautious signs that the virus outbreak may be starting to flatten.<\/p>\n

It saddens me to use a \u2018death\u2019 indicator as a financial market tool, but that\u2019s what\u2019s driving investors at the moment. The declining number of deaths registered due to COVID-19 suggests that we are winning the fight against this horrible virus. Total death rates had decreased from 13% at the start of April to 7% yesterday. That\u2019s the first time we have seen a single-digit number since March 14.<\/p>\n

The drop in newly infected cases and death toll sparked a sharp rally in equities, with US stocks registering its best day in a fortnight \u2013 and its eight best day since the end of the second world war – \u00a0as the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average both rallied more than 7% on Monday. At this stage, markets are repricing the worst-case scenario due to the virus outbreak, but in my opinion, it’s still too early to justify a prolonged move higher.<\/p>\n

Investors moving into risk assets at this stage believe that we\u2019re heading into a V-shaped recovery. Attractive valuations, \u2018fear of missing out\u2019 and extraordinary stimulus packages also exaggerate the upside moves in prices. However, no one yet knows the exact damage this virus has already done to the global economy, corporate earnings, and what kind of exit strategies countries will follow in the weeks ahead. Without proper treatment or vaccination, lockdowns could be reimposed and the global economy will then continue to suffer. The corporate earnings outlook is also very murky as the dispersion of analysts\u2019 forecasts are near a record high. \u00a0Hence, the road ahead won\u2019t be a smooth one, especially as investors still need to digest a mountain of negative economic data and possibly many bankruptcies.<\/p>\n

In my opinion, the best-case scenario is likely to be a U-shaped recovery and not a V-shaped one. The world post-coronavirus is not going to be the same for a long time to come. Social behaviour needs time to return back to normal which means the service sector will continue to feel the pain. For now, let\u2019s hope that we beat the coronavirus and it becomes just a memory of the past.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Disclaimer: <\/strong>The content in this article comprises personal opinions and should not be construed as containing personal and\/or other investment advice and\/or an offer of and\/or solicitation for any transactions in financial instruments and\/or a guarantee and\/or prediction of future performance. ForexTime (FXTM), its affiliates, agents, directors, officers or employees do not guarantee the accuracy, validity, timeliness or completeness, of any information or data made available and assume no liability as to any loss arising from any investment based on the same.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Forex-Time-Logo\"Article by ForexTime<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

ForexTime Ltd (FXTM)<\/strong> is an award winning international online forex broker regulated by CySEC 185\/12 www.forextime.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Hussein Sayed, Chief Market Strategist (Gulf & MENA), ForexTime\u00a0 – The world has finally seen a glimpse of light at the end of this dark tunnel. The coronavirus outbreak is starting to level off across many countries and cities. Looking at the new daily infected cases and death toll from Spain, Italy, Germany and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","no-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168266"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":168274,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168266\/revisions\/168274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}