Markets have been behaving calmly in the last week(s). Countries do slowly reopen and things are going as planned. Meanwhile the rate of infections in most countries is going down. There are some outliers though and looking from a worldwide perspective the Corona virus is far from over and even not yet under control.
Netherlands doing fine
In the Netherlands the situation seems quite in control. Let’s have a look at the daily amount of infections.
Very promising. The Netherlands is reopening most of their economy slowly and step by step. From tomorrow onwards café’s and restaurants open their doors again. Under strict regulations and all according to the 1.5m society. It is going to be interesting to see if we get a small rebound in the amount of cases or not. To be continued.
Most countries are currently showing a similar graph as above. But not all.
The US is somewhat struggling still:
Problems in non Western countries
Most problems are currently arising in countries that were a bit lagging with the outbreaks like India, Brazil, Egypt, South-Africa, Peru et cetera.
Brazil:
Egypt:
India:
So in Western countries the virus seems getting under control, but it is clear that worldwide there are still regions having quickly increasing amount of infections. This will put some pressure on the worldwide economy and will slow down the speed with with international travel can go back to normal. Only a vaccine or effective treatment can bring some quicker help here.
Worldwide the virus is far from over
Worldwide we are still seeing very high number of new daily cases everyday, as you can see below. While we have seen global stock indices recover a fair bit, the danger is not far away.
Worlwide daily infections:
S&P:
Volatility should remain elevated and we can still see hefty reactions in stocks when things would go worse in Western countries again. I think the first time that a Western country has to make a step back towards a lockdown will be a possible trigger for a large sell-off again.
Stock pickers market
Till then, this stock market is a market for stock pickers. Some stocks have done really well while others have done really badly. Some stocks are currently better not to own, while some other stocks that got punished very severely offer very interesting potentials. In April I advised a couple of stocks that were highly undervalued and doubled in value in less than a month. For more insights have a look at the link below:
