- Stock markets sold off yesterday and overnight as flows into safe havens such as the Japanese Yen gained some strength.
- Australian employment data came in worse than expected as almost a quarter of a million jobs were lost.
- New Zealand’s GDP shrank by 1.6% over the last quarter.
- In Forex, the Japanese Yen is the strongest major currency, while Australian is the weakest currency right now. Forex markets are relatively quiet.
- Yesterday saw total new confirmed coronavirus cases globally very close to yesterday’s all-time high.
- The relaxation of coronavirus restrictions continues outside Latin America despite the rising global toll.
- Coronavirus deaths in India and the rest of Asia are rising sharply.
- Coronavirus deaths in Latin America and the Caribbean are 45% of the global daily total, well exceeding those in both the U.S.A. (14%) and Europe (approx. 13%) which shows that the epicenter of the pandemic is in South America. Asia is seeing about 35% of global deaths.
- Global daily coronavirus deaths globally peaked on April 18th but have begun to rise again over the past two weeks. Total confirmed new cases stand at over 8.3 million with an average case fatality rate of 5.38%. Both the total number of new cases and deaths continue to fall daily in most European countries except Russia. New cases in the U.S.A. have seen an increase over recent days.
- Brazil continues to see more daily deaths from coronavirus than any other country in the world.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to be increasing most quickly in Brazil, India, Chile, Mexico, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Colombia, Pakistan, Turkey, and Egypt. Brazil has the second highest number of confirmed cases of any country, followed by Russia and then India.