US and European Shares Rise as Donald Trump Details Potential Therapies to Cushion Coronavirus Pandemic

US Markets Broader indices in the United States traded in green - particularly, the S&P 500 index traded 32.38 points or 1.35% higher at 2,430.50, Dow Jones Industrial Average Index expanded by 231.41 points or 1.16% higher at 20,130.33, and the technology benchmark index Nasdaq Composite traded higher at 7,253.13, up by 263.29 points or 3.77% against its previous day close (at the time of writing, before the U.S market close at 3:40 PM ET).Â

US News: The coronavirus contagion crossed over 9,000 cases in the United States with 150 deaths, while President Donald Trump has signed a $100 billion relief bill on Wednesday night. However, the population applying unemployment benefits jumped off to 281,000 in this week, compared to the estimate of 211,000 in the previous week. Also, with intensifying and the prolonged impact of Covid-19, the credit market is flashing red, from airlines, and cruise lines to retailers and energy companies are drying up the deep pockets of the corporate credit market and leading to credit rating downgrades and peril of bankruptcies. Among the stocks, few gainers were - Tesla Inc., Netflix Inc., and Facebook Inc., all grew by around 7%, with financial measures taken by policymakers to ease the market disruption. On the other hand, some lost the position such as American Airline Group, Inc. fell by 12.19% with the announcement of raising $1 billion credit line, making its available liquidity to $8.4 billion; Ford Motor Co. plunged by 7.33% with the announcement of drawing $15.4 billion funds from its existing two credit lines and suspended dividend to maintain cash; The Hotel operators, Marriott International, Inc. and Darden Restaurants, Inc., both plummeted by around 10% after shrinking their 2020 financial outlook.Â

S&P 500 (SPX)

Top Performers*: Ventas Inc, DXC Technology Co and Simon Property Group Inc shares increased by 33.82%, 25.67% and 23.71% respectively.

Worst Performers*: Textron Inc, Atmos Energy Corp and Southwest Airlines Co shares decreased by 12.91%, 8.63% and 8.48% respectively.

NASDAQ Composite (IXIC)

Top Performers*: Dave & Buster’s Entertainment Inc, Chanticleer Holding Inc, and Biomerica Inc shares expanded by 91.38%, 88.57% and 78.69% respectively.

Worst Performers*: Entasis Therapeutics Holdings Inc, Acer Therapeutics Inc and Gridsum Holdings Inc shares plunged by 39.57%, 35.64% and 32.29% respectively.

Top Performing Sectors*: Energy (Up 7.46%), and Telecommunications Services (Up 5.91%) and Consumer Cyclicals (Up 4.59).

Top Worst Sectors*: Utilities (Down 0.49%) & Consumer Non-Cyclicals (Down 0.48%).

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI)

Top Performers*: Dow Inc, Wait Disney Co. and McDonald’s Corp are the top gainer and Increased by 8.28%, 6.86% and 5.65%

Worst Performers*: Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola Co and Procter & Gamble Co are top laggards and decreased by 4.75%, 4.30% and 3.91% respectively.

European Markets: The London’s broader equity benchmark index FTSE 100 traded at 71.03 points or 1.40% higher at 5,151.61, the FTSE 250 index snapped at 178.49 points or 1.37% lower at 12,829.70, and the FTSE All-Share Index ended 23.89 points or 0.86% higher at 2,788.37 respectively. European equity benchmark index - STOXX 600 ended up by 8.14 points or 2.91 per cent at 287.80.

European News: In Thursday’s trading session, Britain’s top stocks ended a volatile session on a positive note after Bank of England announced emergency interest rates cut again to 0.1% in just over a week time and accelerated its 200 billion pounds of additional bond purchase programme to combat against the coronavirus pandemic outbreak. The UK government earlier this week infused 300 billion pounds of stimulus package to inject liquidity. Among the shares data, Diageo, Royal Dutch Shell, and Astra Zeneca shares accelerated decently, even as the pound recovered from its 35 years low. Crest Nicholson, a home builder stock tumbled by around 30 per cent, led by cancellation of final dividend along with financial forecasts for year 2020. Luxury brand Burberry Group warned that the sales would decline by around 70% to 80% as compared to the last year data. Shares of Pub operator Young & Co's Brewery Plc slumped by around 5.2 per cent as the group stated that in the short term, some or all its pubs may be shut and is unavoidable. Next Plc shares traded in green zone and were up by around 5.3 per cent as the company stated that it would sustain a hit from the coronavirus outbreak of more than 1 billion pounds without pushing its debt and bank facilities.

London Stock Exchange

Top Performers*: ELEMENTIS PLC (ELM), BATM ADVANCED COMMUNICATIONS LD (BVC) and FUNDING CIRCLE HOLDINGS PLC (FCH) are top movers and rose by 130.86%, 42.36% and 34.92% respectively.

Worst Performers*: CREST NICHOLSON HOLDINGS PLC (CRST), FOXTONS GROUP PLC (FOXT) and 4IMPRINT GROUP PLC (FOUR) plunged by 28.47%, 26.99% and 21.32% respectively.

FTSE 100 Index

 5 days FTSE 100 Index Performance (March-19-2020), before the market closed (Source: TR)

Best Gainers*: M&G PLC (MNG), FLUTTER ENTERTAINMENT PLC (FLTR) and CARNIVAL PLC (CCL) expanded by 16.39%, 12.92% and 12.61% respectively.

Worst Performers*: INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS GROUP PLC (IHG), ANGLO AMERICAN PLC (AAL) and LEGAL & GENERAL GROUP PLC (LGEN) plunged by 10.23%, 9.76% and 9.68% respectively.

Stocks traded with decent volume*: (LLOY) LLOYDS BANKING GROUP PLC; (BARC) BARCLAYS PLC; (VOD) VODAFONE GROUP PLC.

Top Sectors traded in the positive zone*: Telecommunications Services (up 6.06%), Energy (up 3.29%) and Consumer Non-Cyclicals (up 2.28%).

Top Sectors traded in the negative zone*: Utilities (down 3.75%), Basic Materials (down 3.44%), and Industrials (down 1.10%).

Forex Rates*: GBP/USD and EUR/GBP were hovering at 1.1530 and 0.9278, respectively.

Bond Yields*: U.S 10-Year Treasuries yield was tilting at 1.187%, and the UK 10-Year Government Bond yield was hovering at 0.621%, respectively.

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*At the time of writing