The global economy’s fragile recovery is facing a fresh hurdle as a surge in coronavirus cases threatens to keep businesses closed and consumers on edge.
The concern comes as high frequency data tracked by Bloomberg Economics had been showing an improving picture for sectors such as transport and dining out as lockdown restrictions are eased. A sustained pickup in virus cases threatens to undermine or even reverse those trends. European stocks fell early on Monday, but later pared losses as investors bet that the economic recovery will keep going. Gold continued its march toward a 2012 high.
In recent weeks, an easing of lockdowns had allowed activity to recover. Bright spots in China include new house prices, which rose at the fastest pace in seven months in May as the coronavirus shutdowns were unwound. Consumer demand, industrial output and investment also showed improvement.