(17 JUNE 2020)DAILY MARKET BRIEF 1:De-risking.

<p>On Tuesday, worries of a second-wave contamination were put aside with the help of the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) announcement of corporate bond relief and solid rebound in US retail sales in May. The latest data showed that the American consumers rose spending by a record 17.7% last month, versus +7% expected by analysts and -14.7% printed a month earlier. While data supported the idea of a stronger post-Covid economic rebound, Fed Chair Jerome Powell emphasized during his semiannual testimony yesterday that the duration and the strength of the recovery remains very much uncertain, and that even a solid recovery in the US labour market may not lead to the robust levels seen before the pandemic, during which more than 20 million Americans lost their jobs. Investors already discuss the pros and cons of pulling interest rates in the negative territory in the US, while the Fed has recently ruled out the negative-rate alternative and the activity across US sovereign markets doesn’t hit at any</p>