Ranko Berich (Monex Europe) | The UK’s response to the incoming coronavirus shock has been about as aggressive as possible in terms of monetary and fiscal policy, but this has done nothing to help sterling. Idiosyncratic factors such as the UK’s monetary and fiscal response or Brexit are beside the point: this is about the US dollar, which is proving unstoppable as global financial markets stare into the abyss of crisis-like conditions.  

M&G Valores | Investors are facing great uncertainty about the economy. Chinese economic indicators for February show a depression-like drop in activity: retail sales fell by 20% y-o-y in February compared with normal growth of 10%; industrial production fell by 13%. Even in the crisis of 2008-09 it had not been negative. This is what we will most probably start to see in Europe soon. Obviously, this does not mean that we are heading towards a Great Depression.

Bankinter | To avoid Covid-19 hit was not possible because it is an exogenous factor to the economy, unleashing this hyper-violent reaction as never before. We suspect this is due to the activation of the stop-losses of passive management. The failure of the central banks (mainly the ECB) and the slow and lukewarm reaction of governments have allowed the markets’ own inertia to increase.