Brief: Regulators in France, Italy and Belgium banned short selling in some stocks for Tuesday’s session, aiming to curtail the plunge in equity markets driven by the coronavirus outbreak. France’s AMF halted such trades in 92 stocks, while Italy’s Consob blocked the transactions in shares of 20 companies and Belgium’s FSMA imposed a similar restriction. Spain went further, telling market participants late Monday they couldn’t bet on share declines for a month, and French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said he would like to see that rule extended Europe-wide.
Brief: Macquarie has told its 15,700 staff around the globe they should work from home from Wednesday. The email, sent on Tuesday morning, says the bank's offices will remain open but with minimal staff. The firm, which has around 6600 staff in Australia, did not put an end date on the new working-from-home arrangement. It is understood some staff at the bank have been told the arrangement could be in place until the middle of the year.
Brief: U.S. regulators and stock exchanges, while widely transitioning their staffs to remote work during COVID-19’s spread, advocated on Monday for financial markets to stay open despite mounting recession fears. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in an announcement that it took measures over the weekend to provide relief to market participants affected by the novel coronavirus after a week of transitioning to what the agency called a “full telework posture.” The regulator said it has remained fully operational throughout the transition.
Brief: Crispin Odey has emerged as one of a handful of winners among the coronavirus induced sell-off, raking in millions of pounds from recent bets against FTSE 250 favourites. Odey’s eponymous investment boutique has initiated bets against six companies, including emerging markets specialist Ashmore and Nick Train favourite Fevertree, which have seen their share prices plummet this year, according to disclosures on short positions from the Financial Conduct Authority. Frankie & Benny’s owner Restaurant Group has fallen 65% since Odey shorted the stock on 5 March, while Tullow Oil shares slid by a third since Odey took out a 0.76% short position on 12 March.
Brief: Hedge fund behemoth Bridgewater has shown its hand in Europe with roughly $15 billion in bets against companies on the continent and in Great Britain, filings reviewed by Reuters show. The world’s biggest hedge fund manager’s short positions amount to more than $5.3 billion in France and $4.7 billion in Germany, while in Spain its shorts add up to almost $1.4 billion and $821 million in three Italian companies.
Brief: At a time of extraordinary swings on world markets, many traders working from out-of-town offices or in unfamiliar dealing rooms fear that communication problems and technical glitches risk adding to already spiralling volatility. Banks’ contingency plans to safeguard markets and employees through the coronavirus pandemic could over time transform the trading and investment world, with more staff working from home or in smaller centers rather than being concentrated in expensive locations like London’s Canary Wharf or Manhattan in New York.