Premarket Stocks: AstraZeneca issues are bad news for the global recovery

What’s happening: European countries (including Spain, Germany, France and Italy) have suspended the use of the AstraZeneca (AZN) The Covid-19 vaccine is concerned that blood clots may be a possible side effect. The moves go against the advice of international medical agencies, which have said there is no evidence that they have anything to do with coagulation, and that deployments should continue while the reports are investigated.

“To date, there is no evidence that the incidents were caused by the vaccine and it is important that vaccination campaigns continue to save lives and stop serious disease from the virus,” the World Health Organization said in a statement. communicated to CNN.

Breaks occur as a third wave of infections occurs on the continent. The Italians are once again having blockade restrictions as the government tries to contain a recent increase in cases, forcing the cancellation of plans during Easter.

What it means: Last week, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development estimated that the U.S. economy would grow 6.5% this year, while China’s economy would grow 7.8% . The 19 countries using the euro, meanwhile, would see relatively sluggish growth of 3.9%.

Savings on vaccine launches will only aggravate these gaps, especially with the United States, which does not depend on AstraZeneca’s shot for its vaccine campaign. Millions more Americans will be able to receive vaccines this week as many states expand their pools.

“Faster progress in vaccine deployment in all countries would lift restrictions more quickly and increase confidence and spending. Slow progress in vaccine deployment and the emergence of new virus mutations resistant to existing vaccines it would lead to a weaker recovery, job loss and more business failures, ”the OECD warned in its report.

The disparity is occurring between markets. The European Stoxx 600 index was flat on Monday, while the S&P 500 gained almost 0.7%, reaching another all-time high.

Look at this space: U.S. airline shares, in particular, posted huge gains on Monday. Speaking at an investor conference, executives from American Airlines (AAL), Units (UAL), Delta (FROM) i JetBlue (JBLU) all reported strong bookings in the traditional spring break period and several said they were selling an increasing number of tickets in the summer.

Shares of American Airlines rose 7.7%, while Delta rose shares more than 2%. JetBlue jumped about 6%.

What follows: European stocks will rise on Tuesday as investors wait for more information on how long the suspensions will last. The European Commission also announced that Pfizer will accelerate the delivery of 10 million doses to the block this spring.

The new investment superstar is having a tough month

Cathie Wood of ARK Invest has become one of the leading voices on Wall Street in recent years, thanks to big bets on Tesla (TSLA), Square (SQ) i Course (COURSE).
The new investment superstar is having a tough month

But sponsors will have to resolve to deal with the rampant volatility of ARK’s publicly traded funds, according to my CNN Business colleague Paul R. La Monica.

The last one: the ARK Innovation ETF, which considers Tesla as its largest stake, has made a wild journey to the end. Tesla accounts for more than 10% of the fund’s assets, so Wood’s success is closely tied to what the market thinks of CEO Elon Musk.

Tesla has skyrocketed in recent days, but still has about a 20% discount on its all-time high. This means that the ARK Innovation ETF has risen more than 15% last week, but continues to fall sharply from the 52-week high.

The big changes have also marked other ARK ETFs that focus on standalone technology and robotics, genomics, next-generation Internet services and fintech. The company also plans to launch a space exploration ETF.

But Wood and his colleagues accept the volatility of investing in high-growth stocks. Ren Legu, the company’s client portfolio manager, told CNN Business that recent moves toward banks, oil stocks and retailers (which investors believe may be undervalued due to the pandemic) is just one ” short rotation “.

“Valuable industries are increasingly vulnerable to disruption,” Legu said, noting that Wood and the rest of the ARK team are thinking about investing over a five- to ten-year horizon.

He added that ARK is more than willing to bet on companies in which it believes if stock prices fall, seeing the opportunity to trade.

“If there are dislocations in the market and big sales, that doesn’t scare us,” Legu said. “It excites us, because you can get good stock at a lower price.”

Ray Dalio believes that market dynamics have “become stupid”

Ray Dalio, the founding billionaire of Bridgewater Associates, has a few words chosen about the wisdom of investing in government bonds right now.

In a new post on LinkedIn, Dalio notes that “the economy of investing in bonds (and most financial assets) has become stupid” yielding extremely depressed (and even negative) returns.

His opinion: “Instead of charging less than inflation, why not buy things (anything) that equal inflation or better?”

Dalio acknowledges that there are “bubble dynamics” in all financial markets thanks to the unprecedented stimulus efforts of central banks.

“There’s so much money injected into the markets and the economy that the markets are like a casino with people playing with fun money,” he writes. “They buy all sorts of things and push everything’s yields down.”

Dalio avoids judging recent political decisions and calls himself a “practical” investor just “trying to stay one step ahead of the crowd.”

What this means: According to Dalio, investors should avoid cash and, instead, “buy investment assets that do not have a debt with higher returns.” In other words, things can be annoying, but you still think it’s time to spend.

Until next time

Retail sales in the United States for February, at 8:30 am ET, followed by industrial production data at 9:15 AM ET.

Tomorrow: The Federal Reserve’s latest political decision will be closely monitored, especially President Jerome Powell’s press conference after the announcement.

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