TSCO.L - Tesco PLC

MORNING BID-Goodbye to a nightmarish quarter

For European stocks you have to go back even further – to 2002. Mexico's peso is set for its worst month since December 1994, the year of the "tequila crisis", forcing authorities to activate a currency swap mechanism established with the U.S. Federal Reserve.

March was biggest month on record for UK grocery sales - Kantar

UK supermarket visits jump by 79 mln before coronavirus lockdown -Nielsen

Britons made over 79 million extra grocery shopping trips in the four weeks to March 21 year-on-year as they stocked their "pandemic pantries", driving a 20.5% jump in supermarket sales, industry data published on Tuesday showed. Market researcher Nielsen said British consumers spent an additional 1.9 billion pounds ($2.4 billion) on groceries. The data showed that in the week ending March 21, two days before Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the full UK lockdown to try to contain the coronavirus spread, sales rose 43% compared to the same period last year.

'Like Glastonbury tickets' - Britons chase online grocery slots in coronavirus crisis

British supermarkets are frantically trying to build up their online operations during the coronavirus emergency but no matter how hard they work they will not have enough capacity to meet unprecedented levels of demand. With Britain in lockdown, analysts estimate about 25% of food purchasing has switched from cafes, restaurants and bars to the grocery retail sector as people adapt to the new way of living. Prior to the health crisis about 8% of British grocery demand was ordered online, with 92% bought in stores.

MORNING BID-The best laid plans of mice and men...

More than $10 trillion in stimulus – fiscal, monetary and increasingly unorthodox – is being deployed against the crisis, including 150 basis points in Fed rates cuts, repo operations, swaplines and short-term funding to ease strains in money markets. Bob Michele at JPMorgan Asset Management describes it as "the greatest mobilisation of sweeping policy that any of us have ever witnessed." Markets seem uncertain – after Friday's selloff, we had a shaky start in Asia and now Europe markets are up as are U.S. equity futures.

Britain's Tesco limits online shop to 80 items during coronavirus crisis

Britain's biggest supermarket group Tesco will limit the number of items customers can order in an online shop to 80 during the coronavirus emergency, it said on Friday. Tesco said the threshold of 80 has been set so that it does not restrict customers doing a normal weekly shop.

MORNING BID-What's the (virus) damage? Singapore offers a hint

On the policy front the news is good – the U.S. $2 trillion stimulus package has been approved and the European Central Bank has given itself unprecedented flexibility in implementing its PEPP 750 billion-euro bond-buying programme. In the UK, already battered by Brexit uncertainty, data showed retail sales failed to grow in February - before the virus really hit Britain.

MORNING BID-Up day on stock market seesaw

After the biggest one-day rise on the Dow Jones since 1933 (!), look for more gains today as Wall Street futures are heading up again. The U.S. Congress finally came through with a $2 trillion spending package that will include things like unemployment benefits and loans for businesses but also $1,200 for citizens under a certain income threshold. JPMorgan flow tracker Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou reckons there are pending equity market inflows of up to $800 billion -- from those who went short or just fled equities -- and now it looks like some of that money is being unleashed.

MORNING BID-An emergency

The Fed has moved on from backstopping financial markets to helping support the real economy. The view may have been that, while the Fed cash injections will ensure financial market liquidity, they won't stem the economic damage that's underway. One reason could be the news that China's Hubei province, where the coronavirus pandemic originated, is lifting travel restrictions, raising hopes the Chinese economy can lead the world economy back toward better times.

MORNING BID-On the edge again

A rising number of countries heading into lockdown, frantic policy makers around the globe and an impasse in the U.S. Senate to pass a $1 trillion coronavirus response bill has financial markets on the edge again on Monday. Stock markets are dropping and oil prices are under pressure, U.S. Treasury yields have slipped towards one-week lows while the dollar gains. Goldman Sachs talks of a sudden stop for the global economy, which it predicts will contract around 1% in 2020 – a sharper decline than the 2008/2009 global financial crisis.

Britain tells shoppers: there is enough food so stop hoarding

Britain on Saturday urged people to act responsibly when they shop for food and stop hoarding so that there was enough for health workers fighting the coronavirus outbreak. "Be responsible when you shop and think of others," Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs George Eustice told reporters. "Buying more than you need means that others may be left without and it is making life more difficult for those front line workers, such as our doctors and nurses and NHS support staff," Eustice said.