S&P 500 Completes First Lévy Flight Event of 2020

The S&P 500 (Index: SPX) completed the Lévy flight event it began last week, with investors fully shifting their forward-looking focus to 2020-Q4 in setting current day stock prices, as expected.

As of the close of trading on Friday, 24 January 2020, the level of the S&P 500 was 3,295.47.

The shift in focus was completed as the outbreak of a new SARS coronavirus in China came to dominate headlines during the week. Here are the market-moving headlines we noted during the holiday-shortened trading week of January 2020:

Tuesday, 21 January 2020

• Oil market shrugs off Libya crisis amid ample global supply
• Bigger trouble developing in Asia, Eurozone

• Risk assets fall as Chinese virus triggers anxiety

• China virus scare sends shudder through European luxury goods sector

China’s Baoshang Bank to be taken over by local governments, state firms

South Korea posts slowest annual GDP growth since financial crisis

Euro zone companies cut loan applications for first time in six years: ECB

Germany likely to lose the most from trade diverted by U.S.-Sino deal

Trump says Fed has lowered rates too slowly

Wall Street falls as China virus reaches the U.S.

Wednesday, 22 January 2020

• Oil slides 2% as glut forecast, China virus overshadow Libya disruption
• U.S. home sales surge to near two-year high; supply at record low
• Trump says Fed raising rates was a mistake: CNBC
• Stocks edge up, oil drops as China virus worries abate

Thursday, 23 January 2020

• Oil falls 2% as specter of China virus threatens fuel demand
• Bigger trouble, stimulus developing in Asia:

• Japan exports shrink for 13th month in further blow to economy
• China central bank to lower funding costs, prevent debt and inflation risks: adviser

S&P 500 gains, Nasdaq hits new high as investors eye earnings, coronavirus

• Coronavirus fears weigh on global equity markets

Friday, 24 January 2020

• Brent logs worst weekly loss in a year as China virus fears swell

• Take Five: When China sneezes

Early signs of rebound in Eurozone?

• Euro zone economy remains weak but green shoots emerging: PMIs
• ECB’s Lagarde says uptick in inflation ‘really minor’

And Japan? Slowing contraction in Japan factory activity eases fears of recession: flash PMI

The S&P 500 has worst day since October as virus fears mount

Elsewhere, Barry Ritholtz lays out a short list of the positives and negatives he found in the past week’s economics and market-related news. Between us and him, did we catch them all during the MLK holiday-shortened trading week?