After a few days when the dominant theme in the market was the progression of the coronavirus epidemic in China, and its consequences in the world’s second economy. Investors are now facing with the inevitable reality of the spread of the public health crisis to several other countries, at a pace that puts the market’s sentiment in a cautious and protective way. With nearly 80,000 infected and almost 2,500 confirmed fatalities, the coronavirus is now in the stage of revealing itself to the world, not only as a danger to the most populous country in the world, but equally to all others. Since the fact that South Korea is the second country with the most infections, Italy is next with more than 150 people infected and with 3 deaths due to the virus, without distance being an indicator of greater or lesser security.
Photo by Adli Wahid.
This weekend was also a revelation for Europe, which felt the threat within doors. Cancellation of Carnival in Venice two days before the period scheduled for the party to end, as well as with the quarantine imposed in some cities in the Italian regions of Veneto and Lombardia, places where schools and businesses will remain closed to try to reduce the risk of contagion and the spread of the epidemic, that is, containment measures and their diverse impacts are already a reality within the European space. Allied with the spread of the crisis in several other important economies, such as Japan, Singapore, Germany and the USA, led investors to remove risk from the table and seek refuge without respite, which triggered a selling wave in the main world indices, with Wall Street having the worst session in two years.
But if Monday was undoubtedly one of the Bears, it is still too early to gauge how the next days will be, being the watchword for now, caution, because the volatility may appear in force.
