Markets' Viral Random Walk May Get Far More Volatile
Look at the range of estimates for China’s manufacturing index and you can see how in the dark we are on the economic impact.
With swathes of China’s economy shut down, the extent of the damage is a guessing game.
Photographer: Stringer/Getty Images
To get John Authers' newsletter delivered directly to your inbox, sign up here.
Another day into the saga of the attempt by politicians and investors to work out how to respond to the terrifying threat of the novel coronavirus, and the story remains the same. There is still no true panic in markets, and there is no attempt to correct the many imbalances that had built up before the virus started to take hold in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Instead, we continue to see a classic random walk in response to news.