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Coronavirus2 min read time

Market Update 24 March: Senate Impasse frustrates investors

Portrait photo of a woman.
By Alexandra Morris Investment Director 24 March 2020
  • Monday ended with the S&P 500 down almost three percent after a volatile day of trading.
  • The Federal Reserve announced new and more extensive measures to support the economy, including unlimited QE and several new funding facilities. For the first time the Fed is also buying corporate bonds in addition to Government bonds and Mortgage Backed Securities.
  • Investors were, however, disappointed by the disagreement in the Senate about the USD 2 trillion stimulus bill. For the second day the Democrats blocked the package, insisting the legislation should include more stringent limits on how big businesses use coronavirus rescue funds. There are indications they are getting closer to an agreement.
  • Other Central Banks are implementing massive measures to secure the credit markets, but markets want to see measures that will directly stimulate economies.
  • NOK volatility continued despite Norges Bank's message that it will intervene in currency markets and buy NOK when considered necessary.
  • This morning we received the first indicators for the outlook for the European economy with preliminary PMIs released for France, Germany and the Eurozone. All are sharply down with services surprising on the downside, while manufacturing data was slightly better than expected.
  • Services data was the lowest ever recorded; France 29, Germany 34 and Eurozone 28.4, pointing to a very deep service sector recession.

services pmi.png

manufacture pmi.png

SKAGEN Funds Summary

  • All funds have good liquidity with healthy cash positions.
  • Except for SKAGEN Global, all our funds were fairly active in the market on Monday.

 

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