Schroders' Tina Fong: Has Covid actually mattered to markets?

Vaccine roll-out has driven optimism

The Covid-19 pandemic has clearly mattered to our daily lives and the well-being of the global economy. But the impact on financial markets has been less straightforward.

The response from financial markets to Covid-19 has been mixed. Equities appear to have looked through the economic consequences of the virus. Last year, the Covid-19 crisis triggered one of the deepest recessions in history which saw global growth contract by 3.6% year-on-year. After the initial selloff in stock markets, global equities - as measured by the MSCI AC World index - went on to deliver a 15% return in 2020. The tailwinds bringing UK value back in fashion: How vaccines and Brexit create the trade of the decade Covid-19 has been important to the performance of equity sty...