(Bloomberg) -- Even without all the prevailing risks to the global economy, emerging-market investors head into the first full week of May with history against them.Because in eight of the past 10 years, May has proved a losing month for stocks, currencies and local bonds in developing economies.The uncertainty over the Covid-19 pandemic, a resurgence in U.S.-China tension and the collapse in corporate earnings merely makes the likelihood of declines this coming week all the stronger. Emerging markets pared weekly gains on Friday while implied currency volatility jumped by the most in six weeks as President Donald Trump revived an attack on China, speculating it could have spread the coronavirus and threatening trade tariffs.“The biggest new development that could weigh on emerging markets is the pick-up in geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China,” said Eric Stein, the Boston-based co-director of global fixed income at Eaton Vance Corp., which manages about...
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) reported an almost $50 billion loss in the first quarter as the value of its stock holdings portfolio was hit hard by the coronavirus-induced capital market sell-off. Berkshire’s first-quarter net loss amounted to $49.75 billion, or $30,653 per Class A share compared with a $21.66 billion profit, or $13,209 per share during the same period last year. Incurred investment loss on stocks and other investments amounted to $54.52 billion as the S&P 500 Index plunged 20% in the first quarter. “As efforts to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated in the second half of March and continued through April, most of our businesses were negatively affected, with the effects to date ranging from relatively minor to severe,” the company said in a regulatory filing on Saturday. Berkshire reported $6.1 billion of net equities sales in April compared with the $1.8 billion of net stock purchases...
