Investors fret over rising Covid-19 cases

Rising numbers of Covid-19 cases overseas has given investors the jitters. Photo / Graham Hughes

The local share market may continue to benefit from a flight to safety as investors fret about rising covid-19 cases in the US and Australia.

Across the ditch, people living in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire will be required to wear masks from midnight Wednesday after Victoria recorded 363 new cases on Sunday. Failure to use a mask will result in a A$200 fine.

In the US, meanwhile, Florida reported more than 12,000 new cases on Sunday and other states, including California and Texas, continue to report new record levels.

On Friday, New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 Index was one of the best performers across Asia, rising 0.7 per cent, with global investors encouraged by NZ's virus-free status, and manufacturing data which showed a pick-up in activity.

On Sunday, the health ministry said there were three new cases of Covid-19 in NZ, all in managed isolation. There are now 25 active cases in New Zealand, all in quarantine.

Today, investors will be watching for the BNZ/Business NZ performance of services index to see if it mirrors the lift in the manufacturing index, which rose to 56.3 in June, the highest level since 2018.

Of particular interest will be any steer on whether businesses are still laying off staff; the PMI had pointed to more job losses.

The kiwi dollar, meanwhile, continues to benefit from US dollar weakness after consumer sentiment there retreated in the first half of July due to the widespread resurgence of the coronavirus, according to an early read of the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment survey.

"The promising gain recorded in June was reversed, leaving the sentiment index in early July insignificantly above the April low," it said. The final July data will be published on July 31.

"There are concerns that weakness in US consumer confidence may be the turning point towards a more general rollover in US data, following a string of better-than-expected data," said ANZ Bank agriculture economist Susan Kilsby and rates strategist Jack Chambers.

The New Zealand dollar was trading at 65.60 US cents at 8am in Wellington versus 65.42 US cents at 5pm on Friday.

Investors will also be keeping an eye on Europe where – after three days of meetings – the 27 European Union states were still seeking a compromise on a 750 billion euro pandemic recovery fund.

"The main haggling point appears to be whether a large part of the recovery plan is made up of repayable loans, rather than grants, and the conditions of how the money will be spent," said Stuart Ive, treasury manager for OMF.

In the US, second-quarter earnings will be in focus this week, with companies including Tesla, Microsoft, Twitter and American Airlines due to report.