Insight - The vote and virus bring reminders of March madness

Now, with less than a week to go before the US presidential election, a resurgence of Covid-19 cases is forcing Germany and France to consider stringent new restrictions that will almost certainly damage Europe’s faltering economic recovery.

LONDON: Equity and currency volatility have shot higher and the cost of sourcing dollars has risen, reflecting fears that the US election and the resurgent Covid-19 pandemic could tip markets back into the sort of chaos endured earlier this year.

A sell-off in March wiped a third off the value of US stock indexes over a three-week period and the premium for cash dollars hit multi-year highs as the pandemic slammed markets and locked down economies.