- President Trump has told people not to be afraid of the coronavirus and is indicating he is back at work as normal. However, speculation persists that his case will remain fragile for at least a few more days. New opinion polls show Biden pulling further ahead with betting markets implying a 64% chance of a Biden victory in the Presidential election.
- Global stock markets rose yesterday until news broke of the end of stimulus talks between Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and Speaker of the House Pelosi, which briefly sent markets tumbling before they began to recover during the Asian session.
- Forex markets over recent hours have seen the Japanese Yen as the weakest major currency, while Silver and the Australian Dollar look like its strongest counterparties.
- The U.S. Federal Reserve will release the minutes of its most recent policy meeting later today. The Chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell warned yesterday that the economic recovery will weaken without additional stimulus measures.
- Today is a public holiday in China.
- 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.
- Last Friday saw the highest daily count of new confirmed coronavirus cases globally recorded yet. The World Health Organization estimated yesterday that 10% of the world’s population has already contracted coronavirus.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases stand at over 35.8 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.93%. Global mortality over recent weeks has been lower than it was during the first peak in April.
- India has more than 6.7 million confirmed coronavirus cases, more than any other nation except the U.S.A. India is now seeing more new deaths daily than any other country with almost 1000 deaths 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, Armenia, Austria, Bahamas, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Burma, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Iceland, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, U.A.E., and the U.K.