By
Bhushan Akolkar
April 17th, 2024
The fiscal stimulus bill presented by the Trump government failed to receive a key Senate vote and was halted from passing. The Democrats said that the bill did little to help out workers and more to bail out companies.
The coronavirus pandemic continues to hit the global markets and the number of infected cases is on a steep rise. The U.S. Stock futures plunged in the early morning on Monday as Wall Street awaits an economic stimulus from the Trump government.
Today, early morning 6 am, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged nearly 600 points. Similarly, the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500 futures also registered sharp losses. Falling 5% in the early morning trade, the future indices also hit the “limit down” levels.
These downside limits are to ensure that the market behaves in an orderly manner once the trading hits a certain threshold. Also, any trades below that levels are not permissible.
The U.S. stock futures and Asian markets nosedive on Monday as the fiscal stimulus bill failed to receive a key Senate vote. The Democrats warned that these measures did very little to help the workers and emphasized only of bailing out companies. Previously, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also stated that she is not in support of the Republican’s version of the stimulus plan.
In the Asia Pacific region, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200, South Korea’s Kospi (KOSPI), Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (HSI), and China’s Shanghai Composite (SHCOMP), all lost between 3-5%. While global investors are waiting on the sidelines for some concrete measures, major countries are announcing lockdown worldwide.
In its recent highest-level alert, New Zealand has announced that all non-essential businesses across the country will remain closed. Several cities in India have also initiated similar measures. Stephen Innes, the global chief markets strategist at AxiCorp, wrote to his investors:
“Investors are recoiling in horror this morning. The rapid spread has triggered unprecedented draconian containment measures. All the while Congress is dilly-dallying on an aid plan.”
Expert Views on Fiscal Stimulus
On Saturday, Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council said that he expects the stimulus package to be more than $2 trillion. This would be nearly 10% of the U.S. Economic output. On Sunday, the U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that they are ready to pump $4 trillion as part of the financing program to boot the economy. However, he added that any further plans will take place in coordination with the Federal Reserve. He added:
“When this started, this was a bit unique to the airline industry since we had shut down most of airline travel. This liquidity facility is a broad-based liquidity facility working with the Fed.”
David Kostin, chief U.S. equity strategist at Goldman Sachs said that the speed of the market recovery will depend on three factors:
- The speed at which the virus is contained
- Whether businesses get access to “enough capital and liquidity to last 90 to 180 days”.
- Whether the fiscal stimulus can stabilize growth forecasts
“If short-term shutdowns lead to business defaults, closures, and permanent layoffs, the damage to corporate earnings growth could persist well after the virus is contained,” Kostin added.