- President Trump has rowed back his previous day’s dismissal of talks on a stimulus package producing results before the November 3rd Presidential election, boosting stock markets and risk-on sentiment somewhat. The Japanese Nikkei 225 Index is up by 0.96% today.
- President Trump is back and work and his doctors report him symptom-free, raising hopes he has recovered from his coronavirus infection.
- The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has signaled that a lower (possibly negative) interest rate and extended stimulus measures are under consideration.
- Forex markets over recent hours have seen the U.S. Dollar as the weakest major currency, while the British Pound and the Australian Dollar look like its strongest counterparties.
- The first Vice-Presidential debate in the U.S. election took place last night between Vice-President Mike Pence and Kamala Harris, attracting much focus due to the advanced ages of the two Presidential candidates. Initial reactions indicate both candidates performed roughly equally.
- Opinion polling suggests that President Trump needs an approximately 3% swing from current polls in the battleground states to have a chance to win the election.
- There will be a release of unemployment claims data later today in the U.S.A.
- Yesterday saw 343,517 new confirmed coronavirus cases reported globally, the highest daily total yet.
- Coronavirus daily global death tolls have been falling since a recent peak in early August, with deaths in Latin America and the Caribbean falling to 36% of the global daily total, well exceeding those in both India (approx. 19%), the U.S.A. (13%), and Europe (approx. 13%). The number of confirmed new cases has been rising quite strongly in the European Union and the U.K. The European Union is now averaging more new cases than the U.S.A. or Brazil.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases stand at over 36.1 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.92%. Global mortality over recent weeks has been lower than it was during the first peak in April.
- India has more than 6.8 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 countries with almost 1000 deaths in each reported yesterday. The past few weeks are seeing confirmed new cases hit new highs globally.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Bahamas, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Burma, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, U.A.E., and the U.K.