Friday 31st January 2020

The Corona virus continues to cause concerns, hitting all asset classes today, including US and European equities overnight. NAB’s Gavin Friend suggests the news is mixed, with the virus still well contained, but there will be economic fallout in the region and the Aussie dollar is one of the casualties. It was 50:50 as to whether the Bank of England would cut rates or not. In the end, they decided to keep rates on hold, reflecting the optimism shared by other central banks of late. And the US economy continues to grow, but it slowed in 2019 and was a way off the 3 percent target that the White House had promised.