Rainy Labour Day

The mood has turned in the markets from energised over the reopening of parts of Europe and the States to realising that the return to normal is happening at such a slow pace that for a large number of companies that the damage will extend well beyond the initial lockdown.

China, South Korea and Singapore were closed today for Labour day, as are a number of European markets, making for slightly quieter trading this morning.

Yesterday’s 3.8m new jobless claims in the US added to the reality check for investors as did Amazon’s words of warning about the forthcoming quarters and Apple’s decision to withhold guidance for the current quarter.  

Airlines hit by Ryanair’s two-year recovery horizon

Budget airline Ryanair painted an even grimmer picture for the airline industry saying that recovery could take at least two years. European operators are worse hit than their US peers because border closures caused some to fully ground their fleets. Scandiavian budget airline Norwegian is hanging by a thread, trying to secure a bond deal that would help it finance the current income gap. US airlines are in a better position as flights still operate across the country. United Airlines for instance reporting a narrower quarterly loss than expected although it did warn of the most disruptive crisis in the history of aviation.

On the FTSE oil majors are trading lower despite a slight uptick in the oil price and miners are also struggling on concerns that a massive global economic slowdown this year will be replicated in sharply lower demand for metals.