- The U.S. Federal Reserve said it expects its interest rate to remain at zero for about 3 years, and that the economic rebound remains fragile without more stimulus. This spooked investors and sent stocks and risky assets falling, while the U.S. Dollar and Japanese Yen were boosted as safe havens, while the Euro and Australian Dollar have fallen most strongly.
- Major global stock markets have fallen since the FOMC release. The S&P 500 Index is down by more than 1% in off-hours trading, and the Nikkei 225 Index is down by 0.66%.
- Technically, it still appears the recent stock market selloff was a natural correction and not a significant trend change. It seems somewhat likely the recovery will eventually continue.
- The U.S. Dollar is notably stronger, against the long-term bearish trend established following June’s “death cross” in the USD Index.
- Yesterday saw the second-highest daily total yet of confirmed new coronavirus cases globally.
- Coronavirus daily global death tolls have been falling slightly for more than 6 weeks, with deaths in Latin America and the Caribbean at 41% of the global daily total, well exceeding those in both the U.S.A. (14%) and Europe (approx. 6%) which shows that the epicenter of the pandemic is well established in Latin America. However, the number of new cases has been rising quite strongly in the European Union and the U.K.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases stand at over 29.8 million with an average case fatality rate of 3.15%. Global mortality over recent weeks is lower than it was during the first peak in April.
- India has more than 5 million confirmed coronavirus cases, more than any other nation except the U.S.A. India, and the U.S.A. each saw more than 1,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths yesterday. The U.S.A. has now recorded a total of more than 200,000 deaths.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Albania, Andorra, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Burma, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, Oman, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Senegal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Tunisia, U.A.E., Ukraine, the U.K., and Uzbekistan.