(30 JULY 2020)DAILY MARKET BRIEF 1: Bad news is good news for markets.

<p>As expected, the Federal Reserve (Fed) maintained its dovish policy stance at this month’s meeting, as Chair Jerome Powell painted a gloomy picture of the economy, emphasizing that the global economy is faced with the most severe recession of our lifetime, that the path forward is ‘extraordinarily uncertain’ and that the most recent data points at a slower pace of recovery. Investors only heard that more stimulus is on the way. We are back to those days where bad economic news is perceived as good news for the market as deteriorating financial conditions mean more monetary and fiscal support, a longer period of cheap liquidity which can only result in a bigger balloon in equity prices. So, the irony is, the US GDP data should confirm near 35% slump in the second quarter and the worse GDP read on record could have a further boosting effect on US and global equities. The Dow Jones (+0.61%), the S&amp;P500 (+1.24%) and Nasdaq (+1.35%) gained on dovish Fed, while US policymakers announced</p>