So the dough is approved, now for the hard work in saving and supporting the COVID-infested American economy.
Anyone who thought the boomlet last week meant the crisis was easing or the sell-off was turning got a rude awakening on Friday with the 3% to 4% slide on Wall Street.
The gloom was matched by a 3.26% slump in Europe and a 5.3% sell-off in the ASX 200.
And yet there was an air of mild optimism seen in the ASX futures market overnight Friday with the share price index up 6 points instead of showing big losses.
Perhaps that was due to the slide here on Friday.
Despite Friday’s fall US shares rose 10.3% for the week – which was their strongest week since March 2009, Eurozone shares were up 6.5%, Japanese shares jumped 17.1%, Chinese shares edged up 1.6% and Australian shares gained 0.5%.
Bond yields fell helped by central banks’ bond-buying programs, particularly in Italy. Oil and iron ore prices fell.
The greenback fell sharply on the back of unlimited Fed quantitative easing which saw the Aussie bounce back to around 61.70 US cents.
Wall Street fell sharply on Friday, joining markets around the world in a surprise pullback on the day the US $US2 trillion support package was finally agreed to and then signed off by Donald Trump at the White House.
Friday’s slide – in Australia late, nasty plunge – was a reminder that the big run-up from Tuesday to Thursday was a relief rally at best or a deceiving dead cat bounce at worst.
The Dow dropped 915.39 points, or 4.1%, to end at 21,636.78, while the S&P 500 index fell 88.60 points, or 3.4%, to 2,541.47. The Nasdaq lost 295.16 points, or 3.8%, to finish at 7,502.38.
Friday’s slide came a day after the Dow marked its best three-day gain since 1931on Thursday, while it was the best such gain for the S&P since 1933.
Despite Friday’s slump, the Dow booked a 12.8% weekly advance, its strongest since 1938, while the S&P 500 rose 10.3% for its biggest such jump since 2008. The Nasdaq’s 9.1% weekly rise was the biggest since March 2009.
Since their peaks around February 19-20, the Dow is still 26.8% below its record high, the S&P 500 is down 25% from its February. 19 peak and the Nasdaq is off 23.6% from its all-time high.
Friday saw the ASX plunge sharply, giving up early gains of more than 2% to close deeply in the red.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 tumbled 270.9 points, or 5.3 percent, to 4842.4, erasing much of the rebound seen in the previous three sessions.
Despite the late plunge, the index still managed to finish the week with a gain of 0.5%.
