Daily summary: Mixed feelings on stock markets as coronavirus now spreads worldwide

• Coronavirus cases across 37 countries

• Mixed feelings in Europe, US stocks open higher

• U.S. new home sales surge

Global stocks markets seem to regain some confidence today despite coronavirus spreading all over the world - new cases have been reported in many countries on Wednesday. Europe and the Middle East are currently the most vulnerable regions. In Italy almost 400 infected people have been confirmed (the number tripled from Monday) and the outbreak is now spreading in other Western European countries. First cases have been reported in Northern Africa and South America as well. According to WHO, new coronavirus cases outside China exceeded those in China for the first time. Beyond China, there are now 2,790 cases across 37 countries. 

In spite of the rapid coronavirus outbreak, global equities are in better shape than yesterday. Although declines were rough in Asia (S&P/ASX 200 dropped 2.31%), European session was much better. Italian FTSE MIB surprisingly soared 1.36% while performance in other countries was mixed with either modest gains or losses. American stocks opened higher after two-day sell-off with major US indices rising more than 1%. 

As far as economic data is concerned, the key event of the day was a new home sales report from the U.S. The release turned out to be exceptionally good and indicated that the sales of new single-family houses in the United States soared 7.9% MoM. Market forecast suggested 710 thousand homes while the published data showed that 764 thousand new homes were sold. As a matter of fact, it is the highest level since July 2007 and yet another reason for a strong dollar (apart from the terrible PMI reading last week). 

The EUR/USD is trading lower right now (-0.05%), even though it managed to break above key 1.09 resistance level today. Taking other G10 currencies into consideration, the British pound and Australian dollar are plunging more than 0.6% against the US dollar. One cannot point out any major moves of gold spot price, the yellow metal is trading higher with modest gains of 0.15%. Silver spot price on the other hand is declining roughly 0.65%. 

Tomorrow will be a busy day indeed. At night GMT time, investors will get to know private new capital expenditures in Australia. The U.S. will publish its Q4 GDP report as well and core durable goods orders and pending home sales reading. Apart from that, Japan and Spain will release their CPI figures. Needless to say, financial markets will pay attention to coronavirus updates.

DE30 finished today’s session 0.12% lower reaching the key support level. The index managed to rebound which indicates that bulls struggled to defend the crucial support zone. Source: xStation5