- President Trump has vowed to continue his legal challenge against the recent presidential election result, but has allowed formal work to begin on a transition of power to Joe Biden on 20th January 2021. This has boosted stocks and risk sentiment somewhat.
- Stock markets are mostly higher over the Asian session, with the S&P 500 Index trading off-hours above 3600 and the Japanese Nikkei 225 Index up by more than 2.5% to reach a new all-time high price.
- WTI Crude Oil is facing increasing demand and is very close to making a new 9-month high price above $43.
- The British pound and the New Zealand and Australian dollars are the strongest major currencies, and the U.S. dollar and precious metals are the weakest. The GBP/USD currency pair again closed at a new 50-day high yesterday, meaning its price will probably rise again today. The NZD/USD currency pair has reached a new 2-year high price.
- There will be a release today of U.S. CB Consumer Confidence data, which may affect the U.S. dollar.
- The RBNZ will be releasing its Financial Stability Report later today, which may have some effect on the New Zealand dollar.
- Last Friday saw 662,957 confirmed new coronavirus cases diagnosed worldwide – a record high. New cases continue to increase exponentially.
- Last Wednesday a record high number of 11,239 global coronavirus deaths were reported.
- Coronavirus daily global death tolls are continuing to increase sharply to new highs 60% higher than the former record peak made last April. Deaths in Latin America and the Caribbean continuing to fall, while rising strongly elsewhere, notably in Europe and in the U.S.A. The U.S.A. accounts for about 22% of global coronavirus deaths, Europe 47%, with Latin America at 19%.
- The European Union is now seeing new coronavirus cases begin to fall, but is still more afflicted than any other geographical area, as lockdowns have an effect. New cases in the E.U. are considerably higher than in the U.S., with a higher amount of deaths too. However, these numbers are still increasing in the U.S. while the rate of new cases is clearly starting to decline in the E.U. although deaths continue to increase.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases stand at over 59.1 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.36%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Burma, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mali, Mexico, Mongolia, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Russia, Serbia, Sudan, Trinidad, Turkey, U.S.A., Ukraine, and Uruguay.