Despite ongoing worries about the economic impact of the pandemic, the key United States stock index, the S&P 500, closed at 3,389.78, about three points above its 19 February record.
The BBC reported that other US indexes had also rebounded.
The Nasdaq hit another record after surpassing its earlier high in June, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average came within about 5% of its February record.
The report said US shares had been on an upward path since 23 March, when America’s central bank announced a slew of unprecedented economic support measures.
Investment strategist William Delwiche said that, as markets had tumbled more than 33% when the pandemic hit, such a rapid market recovery seemed nearly unthinkable.
‘To be even having this conversation right now is remarkable,’ he was reported as saying.
He said the strength and speed of the rebound was especially surprising, given America’s continuing struggle to contain the coronavirus and ongoing concerns about the economy. The US saw its sharpest quarterly contraction on record in the three months to July, amid widespread lockdowns.
Analysts said the recovery was partly due to Federal Reserve moves and other stimulus, as well as demand from investors who were confident the economy would heal and see few better opportunities to make money than on the stock markets.
The unusual strength of the US rebound came from its tech companies, such as Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, which had been seen as winners despite lockdowns, along with companies in areas like cloud computing and machine learning.
Gains in the US had outstripped many other markets. London’s FTSE 100 remained about 20% lower than its January high, while France’s CAC 40 was off about 19%.
The report said that Japan, which had seen its Nikkei 225 index climb back to roughly 4% of its pre-crisis high, had benefited from both aggressive government stimulus and relative success at controlling the virus without mass lockdowns.
In South Africa, News24 reported that the devastating impact of the lockdown on the country’s tourism accommodation industry was reflected in the latest statistics from Statistics SA, showing income plunging by over 95%.
According to Stats SA, total tourism accommodation income for April, May and June 2019 was R5.5 billion. This year, over the same three months, income fell to just R172.6 million. Tourism accommodation income includes related restaurant and bar sales.
The report quoted Investec economist Lara Hodes as saying that, in nominal terms (not taking inflation into account), total income from tourist accommodation plummeted by 95.3% year-on-year in June, following unprecedented declines of 98.6% y/y and 97.9% y/y in April and May respectively.
Positive cases grew in South Africa yesterday by 2 258 to a cumulative total of 592 144 (with 477 671 recoveries). Deaths rose by 282 to 12 264.
The highest tally of cases is in Gauteng (200 949), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (106 565), the Western Cape (102 739) and the Eastern Cape (84 144).