Fed debt purchase pledge fails to stem new wave of Covid-19 global stocks sell-off

A pledge by the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, for a massive spending spree of all types of US debt failed to put the brake on the global stock market sell-off, suggesting that investors are looking for huge government spending programmes and not just market-calming initiatives by central banks.

The Fed’’s pledge all but mirrored the remarks of former ECB president Mario Draghi during the last crisis, when he said the central bank was ready to do whatever it took to save the euro, in 2012.