New Zealand PM Ardern says the country will not be exiting the shut in early – exiting early may jeopardise any gains made – NZ government to make an exit decision on April 20, with reference to data
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European Union finance ministers fail to agree, talks begin again at 1500 GMT on Thursday
European Union finance ministers did not reach agreement on more economic support for their economies. – Talks went for 16 hours on Tuesday and into Wednesday (EU time) Proposed aid package would have credit lines from the euro zone's European Stability Mechanism (ESM) bailout fund providing cash worth up to 2% of a country
Re-opening the US economy: Trump does not indicate a time frame, Kudlow says 4 to 8 weeks
There was little of significance from the daily US coronavirus briefing at the White House. US President Trump did say he'd like to reopen U.S. economy with a 'big bang'
Major indices close higher led by the Dow and S&P
Dow and S&P rise by 3.4% the major indices are closing higher with the Dow and S&P leading the way. Each rose by around 3.4%. The NASDAQ index lagged behind with a 2.6% gain.
FX option expiries for Thursday April 09 at the 10am NY cut
USD/JPY USD/CAD EUR/GBP ForexLive
ECB's Lagarde: Euro's value is stable
Comments by ECB president, Christine Lagarde – The level of the euro is fine – Would like to see a bit more inflation – ECB will ensure policy is transmitted to the entirety of the Eurozone ForexLive
ECB's Lagarde: We shouldn't get fixated on coronabonds
Comments by ECB president Christine Lagarde, via Le Parisien – Things take time in Europe – There can be other forms of European solidarity – Such as mutualised spending from a shared budget or a reconstruction fund At this point, the ECB is getting desperate for governments to just take any joint action to match […]
UK Treasury, BOE announce temporary extension of Ways and Means facility
This will help to provide an additional source of short-term liquidity to the government in order to smooth out its cash flows ForexLive
BOJ downgrades economic assessment for all 9 Japanese regions in latest quarterly report
The Japanese central bank notes that all regions saw their economies weakening or are facing downwards pressure No surprises as the BOJ kept things short and simple by attributing the downgrades to "the impact of COVID-19" in their assessment as per below:
The RBA Financial Stability Report referred to some Aussies withdrawing cash. A LOT of cash.
Which is to be expected in a time of crisis and maybe even paninc, haed to the ATM, or the branch, and take out some cash. (despite many shops and services only taking electronic payment to minimise the risk of virus transmission)