- Stock markets are broadly lower, after the U.S. S&P 500 Index fell yesterday to again approach a 10% decline from its recent all-time high.
- Technically, it still appears the U.S. stock market selloff is a natural correction and not a significant trend change. It seems somewhat likely the recovery will eventually continue.
- The U.S. Dollar is the strongest major currency, and is having its strongest week since April, as markets continue to be dominated by risk-off sentiment. The British Pound, Euro, and Australian Dollar are the weakest major currencies. Precious metals are also weak, especially silver.
- Yesterday the Chair of the Federal Reserve remarked that the economic recovery in the U.S. needs to be supported by further stimulus. A potential stimulus package is held up by political gridlock. The Chair and the Treasury Secretary will also be testifying today.
- The Swiss National Bank is releasing its quarterly policy input today.
- French and German manufacturing data was quite positive yesterday, but the services numbers were poor.
- The number of confirmed new coronavirus cases reported worldwide yesterday was the second-highest of all time.
- Coronavirus daily global death tolls have been falling slightly for almost 2 months, with deaths in Latin America and the Caribbean falling to 36% of the global daily total, well exceeding those in both India (26%), the U.S.A. (15%), and Europe (approx. 8%). The number of new cases has been rising quite strongly in the European Union and the U.K. with the latter introducing new restrictions aimed at curbing the spread.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases stand at over 31.8 million with an average case fatality rate of 3.06%. Global mortality over recent weeks has been lower than it was during the first peak in April.
- India has more than 5.7 million confirmed coronavirus cases, more than any other nation except the U.S.A. India and the U.S.A. are now seeing more new deaths daily than any other country with over 1,000 deaths reported yesterday in each nation. The U.S.A. has just passed the milestone of over 200,000 deaths.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in The Bahamas, Belarus, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Burma, Canada, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Netherlands, Oman, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, Ukraine, the U.K., the U.S.A., and Uzbekistan.