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To ‘batten down the hatches’ is a nautical term from the early 19th century. When a ship was about to enter rough seas, the captain would order the crew to batten down the hatches to prevent the ship from sinking. Our government is trying to flatten the COVID-19 curve to prevent the same devastating and overwhelming chaos in our medical system that is currently occurring in Italy and increasingly around the world. Quite simply, they’re also concurrently trying to prevent a financial system collapse. It seems that no matter where you look the rapid spread of COVID-19 is having a major impact on the economy.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared Coronavirus a pandemic and many countries are taking never before seen measures to control it. Belgium has shut down schools for five weeks. The US has stopped all flights arriving from Europe for the next 30 days. And Australia has declared a national emergency, with social distancing enacted and all events over 500 people now cancelled, with further restrictions thought to follow.
As market sentiment worses, many investors are selling their holdings. However, others see the situation as an opportunity. Iconic and ever-reliable investor Warren Buffett is one of them. Buffett’s initial reaction to the coronavirus was that “I like to buy stocks, so I don’t wish ill on anybody else. But if they want to sell them to me cheaper, I prefer it.”
Thursday 12 March marked the end of the 11-year bull run, and introduced the beginning of a bear market.
Good rainfall and soaring livestock prices have doubled Victorian farmers’ confidence in the agriculture economy since last quarter. According to the Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey released on Monday, 41% of responding Victorian farmers expect the farming sector to improve over the next 12 months. This has come at a good time too, with demand for agricultural products expected to grow with recent changed market conditions.
CAR-T therapy is a new type of therapy that has shown stunning responses in certain blood cancers and might be replicable in other types of cancers as well. It cured Australian actor Tom Long after he had been given three months to live and had exhausted all other options for his multiple myeloma.
Google recently announced launching its second Google Cloud Platform (GCP) in Australia, set to go online in 2021 in Melbourne. The first one was launched in Sydney in 2017.
Timothy F. Geithner spent most of his career dealing with financial crises. He served as President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, then as President Barack Obama’s secretary of the Treasury. He helped the United States deal with the Global Financial Crisis, which he ultimately covered in great detail in his book specifically on Financial Crisis’, which he titled Stress Test.
In their recent research annual report, ARK Technology shared their perspective on the biggest investment opportunities in tech for the coming decade. Let’s run through what ARK’s research says about the most promising opportunities you should keep an eye on this year.
Although Australia’s sheep flock numbers are projected to reach a 116-year low in 2020, producers and livestock associations are confident that the numbers will bounce back thanks to the steady February rainfall and international demand for Australian lamb.
The sudden drop last week took investors by surprise. Many believed the coronavirus had already peaked but by the end of last week, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 9.77% while S&P500 fell 11.49%.
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