NEW YORK - Stocks across the globe posted their biggest decline in a month on Monday as surging coronavirus cases in Europe and the United States clouded the world economic outlook, giving the US dollar a safe-haven boost.
"It's almost entirely Covid-related. We thought all along that the most important factor for the market, good or bad, is Covid and it's bad because cases are rising," said Christopher Grisanti, chief equity strategist at Mai Capital Management in Cleveland. The pan-European STOXX 600 index lost 1.81 per cent and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe shed 1.52 per cent.
More on this topic "We have raised the probability of a Democratic sweep, already our base case, from 40 per cent to just over 50 per cent and have increased our expectation of Joe Biden to win from 65 per cent to 75 per cent," NatWest Markets analysts said."We see steeper US yield curves and a weaker USD as likely to prevail in our base case." Benchmark 10-year notes last rose 11/32 in price to yield 0.8044 per cent, from 0.841 per cent late on Friday.
"Skittish investors are scooping up the greenback as virus cases accelerate around the world, stimulus talks in Washington remain in limbo, and trepidation is on the rise ahead of America's presidential election," said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions in Washington.