By Adam Button
A shocking fall in the and some of the details of the U.S. report illustrated the speed of the economic slowdown. The was the top performer yesterday, while the lagged.
U.S. banks’ loan loss provisions soared, with the (NYSE:), (NYSE:) and (NYSE:) taking $12.8bn of charges in Q1. These figures should imply a sharp blow to the once-solid consumer sector (more below).
and indices futures took a fresh dip after the release of newly-reported U.S figures on coronavirus, with deaths hitting 2,492 on Wednesday from Tuesday’s 2,299 and 1,901 one week ago. and U.S. are due up next.
The Empire Fed report was expected to sink. It’s an indicator that’s close to real-time and it surveys manufacturing in the New York area, which is the current epicenter of the global outbreak. Yet no one thought it would be this bad.
The consensus estimate was for a fall to -35 from 21 in March. That would have been narrowly lower than the -34.3 bottom during the financial crisis….
