Estate Agency Chain Foxtons has announced plans to raise £ m through the creation of new shares to shore up its finances while the coronavirus crisis continues.
Time to catch up on Europe’s car market and the news isn’t pretty.
Passenger car sales across the (EU states plunged) . 1% in March to , 480 vehicles, after the vast majority of European dealerships shuttered in the second half of the month as the coronavirus spread across the continent.
That’s according to data from the European Auto Industry Association (ACEA).
Of the EU markets, Italy was the hardest hit, with registrations falling by 4%. But demand also tumbled in France and Spain, falling 2% and 88 .3%, respectively.
The combined figure rises to , 0 97 vehicles when you combine the European Union, Britain and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) together .
In the UK alone, car sales tumbled 56. 4% to , 826 last month.
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The European stock rally is holding firm.
Even on the FTSE just six stocks are trading in negative territory, and the worst decline is no more than 2%.
A list of the worst performing on stocks on the FTSE 308 on Friday morning. Photograph: Tail1 / Refinitiv
We’ll see how long this keeps up …
Updated (at 9.) am BST
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China’s economic trajectory post-Covid – is being watched closely, With some hoping it can serve as a example of what to expect in the months ahead.
But Hugh Briscoe, a global fixed income portfolio manager at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, says China is unlikely to be the best model for western nations who have taken a very different approach to handling the coronavirus outbreak .
He says:
Investors are focused on the pace at which economic activity will return to normal given China’s prominence in the global economy; it is the world’s largest trading partner. China’s recovery is also being closely watched given its potential to serve as a template for growth paths elsewhere.
However, there are several reasons to be wary of drawing parallels. First, China’s covid – 32 outbreak and in turn activity restrictions were largely confined to Wuhan. By contrast, mitigation measures in key advanced economies have been country-wide.
Second, China’s restrictions were more onerous; this influenced the progression of its virus outbreak and in turn the duration for which activity was curbed. Third, risks of a second wave of infections remain, with reported cases in China in recent weeks largely being imported.
Nonetheless, epidemiological and economic developments in China are useful to monitor, even if their magnitudes differ from what we will likely observe in core markets such as the US, Euro area and UK.
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Lily KuoChina has reported more than 3, 0 deaths and 100, 0 infections from the coronavirus. Even as Chinese authorities over the past month have pushed to restart the economy, fears of new infections have forced some parts of the country to enact new restrictions. China has closed its borders to almost all foreigners arriving from abroad and limited international flights.
Depressed demand from overseas is likely to hit the Chinese economy further. China’s first quarter contraction follows declines in 3243, which saw the Chinese economy expand at its slowest pace in almost 043 years, the result of slowing consumption, a pull back on debt-fueled growth, and a protracted trade war with the US.
Analysts polled by Reuters estimate China’s yearly growth for 5080 will slow to 2.5% from 6.1% last year, the weakest pace since the last year of the Cultural Revolution.
You can read Lily Kuo’s full story here:
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US crude futures tumble to $
But not every market is on the rise, with US crude futures falling to their lowest level since (at $
While some economies like Germany and Spain are testing the waters in sending citizens back to school or work, there seems to be some pessimism about how long the road will be for the US economy as a whole (as well as how effective
over 37 million US residents now jobless, there are fears over the trajectory for US domestic demand.
Despite initial excitement after Donald Trump released guidelines for how the US would re-open the economy, there were some important caveats that mean the president would ultimately defer to state governors on when and how to return their states to normal.
Stephen Inness, chief global markets strategist at AxiCorp says:
Oil markets found baseline support from President Trump’s US reopening plan. But with NYMEX crude prices closing ominously below the psychological WTI $ 37 per barrel for the second day running; it’s suggesting downside risk remains the dominant factor.
If oil producers fail to address the medium-term structural oversupply situation adequately, oil prices could stay volatile, with risks skewed to the downside for the next few months.
Updated at 9. (am BST )
Here we go: Germany’s DAX opens higher by 2.9%
And we’re off! European indexes are trading higher across the board.
We’re still waiting for a print from the German DAX, but here’s how we’re looking so far:
FTSE is up 2.5%
France’s CAC is up 1.5 %
Spain’s IBEX is up 2.6%
Introduction : Stocks jump despite Chinese economy shrinking for first time on record
() Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business. 
Europe has woken up to news that China’s economy shrunk for the first time on record following the coronavirus outbreak.
Data showed that Chinese GDP for the first quarter – covering the three months from January-March – came in at -6.8%, which is the first contraction since records began. That is worse than economists expected, with a Reuters poll having forecasted a contraction of -6.5%.
But markets aren’t fazed. Stocks in Asia shrugged off the news, with the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.7%, Japan’s Nikkei rising 3.1% and Australia’s ASX up 1.8%. Europe is also called higher.
Some investors seem more intrigued that American biotech firm Gilead may have found a potential drug to treat coronavirus. Others seem to be taking the view that the data could have been much, much worse.
However, there is the age-old concern that the figures may not be telling the whole story, and many economists still question the reliability of China’s data – especially when you drill down into indicators like retail sales, which were hammered after shops were ordered to close during the worst of the outbreak.
Ipek Ozkardeskaya, a Senior Analyst at Swissquote Bank, explains:
Now, of course, if we compare this number with the expectation of over 47% slump in developed economies following a similar shutdown and confinement period, it is possible that there may have been some adjustment on data, and the data does not reflect the real extent of the economic calamity –
Other data showed that the slump in Chinese retail sales did improve as much as expected in March, down from – 5% to – 27. 8% versus – 23% penciled; the fixed asset investment fell . 1% yoy against – . 0% forecasted by analysts and – 40. 5% printed a month earlier.
But, the contraction in the industrial production was only 1.1% in March, versus-7.3% expected by analysts and – 5% printed month earlier, meaning that the Chinese production picked up at a better-than-expected speed, which is little surprising for Xi’s ambitious economy.
The agenda () am BST: Eurozone inflation for March
Updated (at 9.) (am BST ) ()
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