Interest rate cuts, introduced to stimulate global economies amid the spread of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), have instead compounded market trepidation and are weighing heavily on London Metal Exchange base metals prices, which broadly closed down on Tuesday March 3.
The United States Federal Reserve slashed its interest rate by 50 basis points to 0.5% on Tuesday, and while the unscheduled rate cut might have been expected to shore up confidence in already-slowing global economies as 2019-nCoV spreads, the opposite looks to be true. "What central banks did today is just telling the world that they are panicking - their lips say don't panic but their actions say otherwise," Fastmarkets analyst Andy Farida said. Although the US dollar index fell...