Trade tensions are a bigger risk to stocks than coronavirus, Invesco’s Kristina Hooper warns
Invesco’s Kristina Hooper warns the coronavirus is not the biggest threat to the market.
She sees flaring U.S.-China trade tensions potentially doing the most harm to stocks.
“The pandemic has largely been isolated and neutralized because of all the monetary policy support that the Fed has provided,” she told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Friday. “That really has decoupled the economy from the stock market.”
Unlike the pandemic, Hooper contends a tariff war resurgence would be a direct hit to the market.
“As we saw in late 2018 and 2019, the tariff war was very, very problematic. It created a big headwind for stocks [and] a bigger headwind than for the overall economy, ” she said. “That could be happening again this time around.”
· Asia Pacific stocks trade higher on vaccine hopes; Japan lifts state of emergency
Stocks in Asia Pacific traded higher Tuesday morning after American biotech firm Novavax said Monday it started the first human study of its experimental coronavirus vaccine.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.98% as shares of index heavyweight Fast Retailing jumped about 2%. The Topix index also gained 0.8%. The moves came after Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Monday that the state of emergency will be lifted in the last five of the country’s 47 prefactures, according to state broadcaster NHK.
South Korea’s Kospi also gained 0.42% as shares of LG Chem surged about 5%.
Meanwhile, shares in Australia edged higher, with the S&P/ASX 200 up 0.25%.
Overall, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index traded 0.11% higher.
Investors will watch for market reaction to the announcement from Novavax, where the firm said it expects initial results on safety and immune responses in July. That comes on the back of Moderna’s recent report of a positive development in its vaccine trial where all 45 participants had developed coronavirus antibodies.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC
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