The three concerns demanding market attention over the past week – The National

The three concerns demanding market attention over the past week – The National

How policymakers respond to the crisis has consequences for economies and stock markets. Policymaker responses to the coronavirus pandemic throw up new questions and concerns about the consequences for economies and markets every week.. The last week has been no exception, with three prominent issues at the forefront of market attention.. Steps were taken last week to punish China.. In the first of these, Mr Trump directed a prominent US pension fund managing the pensions of millions of federal employees not to invest in Chinese companies, threatening that the US could "cut off the whole relationship with China".. Before the crisis, markets were hoping that US-China trade relations were on the mend.. The second issues the week also involved speculation about the monetary and fiscal policy consequences of the crisis moving more fully to centre-stage.. Fed chairman Jerome Powell emphasised his opposition to negative rates during the week, with other Fed officials also dismissing the strategy as inappropriate for the US at this juncture.. To some extent the markets' moves are understandable, as the possibility of deflation is being confronted for the first time since the global financial crisis, with growth contracting in the first quarter - and set to