The Federal Reserve announced a new stimulus package on April 9th, providing up to $2.3 trillion in loans, aimed to support households and employers of all sizes and bolster the ability of state and local governments to deliver critical services during the coronavirus pandemic. "Our country's highest priority must be to address this public health crisis, providing care for the ill and limiting the further spread of the virus," said Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome H. Powell. "The Fed's role is to provide as much relief and stability as we can during this period of constrained economic activity, and our actions today will help ensure that the eventual recovery is as vigorous as possible."

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment for the US fell to 71 in April of 2020 from 89.1 in March, missing market expectations of 75. It is the lowest reading since December of 2011 and the largest monthly decline ever recorded, preliminary estimates showed. Declines were seen for current conditions (72.4 from 103.7) and expectations (70 from 79.7). Inflation expectations for the year ahead dropped t 2.1 percent from 2.2 percent while the 5-year one increased to 2.5 percent from 2.3 percent. Data suggests that the free-fall in confidence would have been worse were it not for the expectation that the infection and death rates from covid-19 would soon peak and allow the economy to restart. However, anticipating a quick and sustained economic expansion is likely to be a failed expectation, resulting in a renewed and deeper slump in confidence.

US crude prices jumped more than 6% to near $27 a barrel during the early US session on Thursday, amid renewed optimism that OPEC+ will strike a production cut agreement between 10-15 million bpd later today. Meantime, President Trump insisted that US output was already declining, but Russia has rejected that a market-driven fall in production could count towards the country’s share of a potential global oil reduction deal.

Stocks across Europe extended gains on Thursday, with the DAX 30 hitting a one-month high of 10,591 in afternoon trading, after the Federal Reserve unleashed a new stimulus package to support households, businesses and local governments across the US. Early optimism was boosted by hopes that the coronavirus pandemic was close to peaking, while investors await a coordinated economic support package to be announced by European finance ministers and crude output cuts to be delivered by major oil producers. Other stock indexes rose: the FTSE 100 gained 155 points or 2.7%; the CAC 40 advanced 94 points or 2.1%; the FTSE MIB climbed 349 points or 2.0%; and the IBEX 35 added 150 points or 2.2% around 4:15pm Frankfurt time.

Wall Street opened higher on Thursday after Federal Reserve rolled out a broad $2.3 trillion stimulus to support local governments and small and mid-sized businesses. Meantime, market reaction was muted to the claims report which showed the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits at 6.606 million in the week ended April 4th, well above expectations of 5.25 million and bringing the total reported in the last three weeks to near 17 million. Investors continue to monitor latest coronavirus updates, with some models suggest fewer people in the US will die than previously predicted although the death toll reached a record high of 14.8K. The death toll also continues to reach records in European countries and the rate of new infections increased in Italy and Spain after several days of declines.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX opened in the green on Thursday, extending previous session’s gains as oil prices rose on hopes that major oil producers will agree on an output cut at a meeting later in the day. Gains came despite latest employment report, which showed that the economy shed a record 1 million jobs in March while the jobless rate jumped to an over nine year high as the coronavirus pandemic forced the closure of non-essential businesses. The number of infections in the country already surpassed 19,400 and the death toll reached 435.

The Canadian economy lost 1010.7 thousand jobs in March of 2020, after creating 30.3 thousand in the prior month, surpassing market expectations of a 350 thousand cut. This was the biggest decline in employment on record and larger than in any of the three significant recessions experienced since 1980, attributed to the Covid-19 lockdown. Part-time work slipped by 536.7 thousand and full-time went down by 474 thousand. Employment fell in all provinces, mostly in Ontario (-403 thousand), Quebec (-264 thousand), British Columbia (-132 thousand) and Alberta (-117 thousand). Youth employment fell by 392,500, the fastest rate of decline across the three main age groups. There were fewer people working in industries which involve public-facing activities or limited ability to work from home. This includes accommodation & food services (-2.4 thousand); information, culture & recreation (-0.9 thousand); educational services (-0.3 thousand) and wholesale & retail trade (-2 thousand).

ECB policymakers agreed that bold and decisive action was needed to counter the serious risks posed by the rapidly spreading coronavirus for the monetary policy transmission mechanism, the outlook for the Eurozone economy and, hence, ultimately the ECB’s price stability objective, the accounts of the March 18th emergency meeting showed. Officials worried about the extreme volatility of financial markets, the likely deterioration in the outlook for economic activity and inflation as well as the accompanying drop in inflation expectations. The March's decision to launch a massive asset purchase programme came in just six days after the ECB agreed on a small increase in asset buys and after ECB President Christine Lagarde said it was not the ECB's job to help "close spreads".

HM Treasury and the Bank of England announced a temporary extension of the government’s long-established Ways and Means (W&M) facility, which will provide a short-term source of additional liquidity to the government if needed and support the orderly functioning of markets, through the period of disruption from Covid-19. Still, the government will continue to use the markets as its primary source of financing, and its response to Covid-19 will be fully funded by additional borrowing through normal debt management operations.