Your morning market update from Knight Frank Research, Friday 3rd April
Good morning,
1 minute to read
Economic headlines
Markets were relatively quiet overnight following the volatile swings of recent weeks. Shares across Asia and oil prices dipped ahead of the weekend as the number of global Covid-19 cases passed 1m people.
The UK government has now announced a new emergency loan package for the “squeezed middle” of midsized companies excluded from previous Treasury’s Covid-19 rescue schemes.
Economists expect the UK unemployment rate to hold between 4% and 6% in 2020, a rise from the 3.9% recorded at the end of 2019.
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has promised every NHS worker currently self-isolating a coronavirus test by the end of the month as he set a new target of 100,000 tests a day.
Housing market implications
Stimulus packages from governments across the world have gone some way to stabilising markets. This morning, Flora Harley takes this deep dive into the official response across 15 counties, who are spending an average of 4.3% of GDP on measures to offset the impact of the Covid-19.
Analysis by Chris Druce of online property search data on knightfrank.com indicates prime buyers are doing their homework during lockdown. The number of web views for high valued UK properties increased by 22% in the week ending 28 March compared to the same period last year.
Andrew Shirley's investigation into the fortunes of luxury investment markets continues with this look at investment-grade wine. Luxury items have reputations as safe-havens during a crisis, and an index of fine wines remained unchanged during Q1 while stock markets tumbled.
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