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CIO Market Update with Will Bartleet
CIO and multi-asset portfolio manager at Pacific Asset Management

It was reported that the Boris Johnson had been moved into intensive care overnight; Dominic Raab will stand in for the UK Prime Minister. 

With the Pacific G10 Macro Rates Team 

Global Macro Overview
Financial markets were far quietier last week, as the actions taken by central banks’ around the world continued working through the financial system. Not much attention was paid to economic data, which continues to lag and does not provide any insight on the amount of damage that the global economy is dealing with.  

CIO Daily Market Update with Will Bartleet
CIO and multi-asset portfolio manager at Pacific Asset Management

Germany announced a new “limitless” loan program for small and medium sized companies suffering from the economic slowdown. German Finance minister Olaf Scholz announced that the loans would be 100% backed by the government for companied with between 11 and 250 employees. 

Pacific Model Portfolio Solutions Live Webinar

As the COVID-19 situation continues to develop at a rapid pace, Pacific Asset Management hosted a live global market discussion and an update on the Pacific Model Portfolio Service. In the webinar, Matthew Lamb, CEO of Pacific Asset Management was joined by Will Bartleet, CIO and Lead Portfolio Manager of Pacific Multi-Asset Range of Solutions to discuss the ongoing situation and provide an overview of how the portfolios have performed and why they are uniquely constructed to deliver further diversification for clients. 

CIO Daily Market Update with Will Bartleet
CIO and multi-asset portfolio manager at Pacific Asset Management

Equity markets fell as news the number of cases of COVID-19 has surpassed one million set a sombre tone. US Labour markets again cast a pall with a sharp fall in the Nonfarm payrolls and an increase in the unemployment rate. 

CIO Daily Market Update with Will Bartleet
CIO and multi-asset portfolio manager at Pacific Asset Management

A rally in equity markets was set back by the news that a record 6.6 million workers lost their jobs in America last week. This takes the two-week figure to 10 million jobs or approximately 6% of the US workforce. 

CIO Daily Market Update with Will Bartleet
CIO and multi-asset portfolio manager at Pacific Asset Management

Markets started the new quarter with another bout of volatility with equity markets reversing some of last week’s gains. President Trump issues his starkest warning yet of the “painful” upcoming period for Americans, abandoning his previously optimistic tone. The Governor of Florida also changed course, ordering Floridians to stay at home after weeks of rejecting calls to do so. 

CIO Daily Market Update with Will Bartleet
CIO and multi-asset portfolio manager at Pacific Asset Management

The final day of an extraordinary quarter for markets saw equities and bonds mixed with European equities rallying and government bonds slipping whilst the US saw equities sell-off and government bonds rallying.  

CIO Daily Market Update with Will Bartleet
CIO and multi-asset portfolio manager at Pacific Asset Management

News of a slowdown in new cases in Italy provided some hope that social distancing can control the spread of COVID-19. Although in the US, President Trump was forced to admit that life in America won’t get back to normal by Easter. More states in America issued orders instructing individuals to stay at home. 

With the Pacific G10 Macro Rates Team 

Global Macro Overview
Another week passed with more and more parts of the world coming under lockdown. It remains to be seen how much damage is going to be done to the global economy, but we started getting the first evidence of a slowdown from economic data released last week.