Wall Street rebounded strongly in the last hour of trade overnight, adding almost 1,000 points for a gain of more than 9% on the day to end of what was one of the most miserable weeks in market history.
But the surge seems to have passed Australia by, judging by the trading on overnight futures trading had the ASX 200 up a mere 61 points or just over 1%.
But seeing the market surged 12% on Friday from its 8% early loss, perhaps the rebound happened on Friday and Monday will see a cooler reaction.
The S&P 500 rose more than 9% as a tentative rally intensified after government officials and business executives spoke at a news conference at the White House where President Trump declared a national emergency to address the spread of the coronavirus.
The surge came a day after the Dow and the S&P 500 suffered their biggest one-day plunge since Black Monday which triggered the October 1987 crash.
The Dow leapt 1,985 points or 9.4%, to 23,186, the S&P 500 index ended 9.3%, or 230 points higher at 2,711, while the Nasdaq ended the session up 673 points or 9.3% at 7,874.
It was the best one day gains for all three benchmarks since the GFC in 2008.
But the Dow still ended the week down 10.3%, the S&P 500 shed more than 14% and Nasdaq ended with an 8% plus loss.
In his speech Trump outlined some of plans to help limit the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak that has curtailed personal and professional activity in the US and elsewhere.
He said he would call for waiving interest on all student loans, and instructed the US secretary of energy to buy “large quantities” of crude-oil after a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia sparked a plunge in the price of oil, which has weakened the balance sheets of the highly indebted shale-oil sector and put many companies close to the edge of collapse.
The waiving of interest on all student loans is one a number of measures in a congressional aid package which will be voted on by the US Senate next week. The House of Representative was due to vote on the package shortly.
Trump though has said he is opposed to much of the package. That’s because it is the idea of the Democrats and Trump is now in election mode for the November polls. To get his emergency ideas enacted he will need the support of the Democrats.
Trump said the action will open up access to up to $US50 billion in funds for states and localities in the fight against the coronavirus. Trump also urged the US states to establish emergency operations centres.
Trump’s declaration of a national emergency, a seldom-used presidential power, enables the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to assist state and local governments and coordinate the US response to the crisis. The virus has killed 41 people in the United States.
The positive reaction was in stark contrast to his botched TV speech on Wednesday night when he fluffed his delivery and sowed more confusion.
The speech saw gold trim its earlier $US73 an ounce fall around $US60 in late trading to around $US1,529, while oil kicked up a couple of bucks a barrel in New York to end around $US33.20 a barrel.
The US dollar firmed, sending the Aussie dollar under 62 US cents to new multi-year lows. The yield on 10 year US bonds climbed again to end just shy of 1% at 0.992%. It started Friday at 0.77% and touched a day’s high of 1.015%.
In Europe shares rose after Thursday’s bloodbath but the Trump speech came too late to boost what was a weak gain of around 1.4% on the STOXX 600 pan European share index.
Spain though has declared a national emergency as the number of cases and deaths surge in that country.
