Stocks, corporate bond recovery only when cash scramble ends

AS the Covid-19 death toll mounted worldwide last week, the US economy ground to a sudden halt, causing a historic stock-market crash and the beginnings of a credit crisis.

"The worst-case scenario is getting likely," said Lorenzo Di Mattia, manager of hedge fund Sibilla Global Fund, citing the possibility that the sudden halt in global economic activity could sink stocks yet further. "It's a real nightmare."

US stocks crashed last week, with major indexes seeing their biggest losses since the 2008 financial crisis, and some measures of stock and credit-market volatility surpassing even that event. Oil futures fell - the biggest crash since the first Gulf war - to their lowest levels in more than a decade.