Weekly News Summary for February 28 to March 5, 2020

Friday, February 28, 2020: Global Markets’ Panic Selling Eases

A worldwide panic selling within the markets continued on Friday, although it showed tentative signs of easing, but not before Asian stocks took a sharp drop and the European shares remained weak by 3.2%.

Brent crude registered a 3-year low, before recovering above $50 per barrel, while the 10-year US Treasury yield posted a new record low of 1.17%, but later bounced back to 1.19%, and gold futures pared recent major gains.

Monday, March 2, 2020: US Stocks Rise on Central Bank Policy Prospect

US stock markets inched up on Monday, as the investors cheered for the central banks potentially reducing interest rates to counter the economic impact of the coronavirus.

The Dow climbed 2.36%, while the S&P 500 rose 1.85%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index gained 1.79%.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020: Euro Zone CPI Growth Slows on Weak Energy Market

The Euro zone consumer prices grew more slowly in February than in January, as the coronavirus outbreak left oil prices with a 0.3% decline.

The consumer price index remained unchanged at 1.2% last month, while the core index unexpectedly rose by the same rate, according to data from the European Union’s statistics office.

Wednesday, March 4, 2020: Saudi Arabia Reportedly Seeks Huge Output Cut

Saudi Arabia is reportedly urging its allies inside and outside OPEC to curb over 1 million bpd from their already-reduced supplies, in what appeared to be a serious move to steady the global oil market.

OPEC’s Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee is due to meet in Vienna on Wednesday ahead of a 2-day meeting of ministers, which is expected to sign off on some form of an additional production limit to keep the market from facing another major glut.

Thursday, March 5, 2020: US Dollar Struggles on Concerns over Coronavirus

The US dollar struggled to make progress on Thursday, as the very low US yields and the outlook for more policy easing pressured the currency, while concerns over the coronavirus drove the yen up.

The dollar index was down by 0.01% to $97.32, while the greenback shed 0.1% to 107.31 yen, having hit a 5-month low of 106.84 yen earlier, whereas the euro was steady at $1.11 against its US counterpart.