- Stock markets are consolidating after a mostly inconclusive day, although recent gains have held.
- U.S. retail sales data shows consumers in the U.S. have been spending considerably more heavily than had been expected.
- In Forex, the Australian Dollar is the strongest major currency, while the U.S. Dollar is the weakest currency right now.
- China and India have been involved in an armed border clash causing the deaths of at least 20 Indian soldiers. It seems tension is de-escalating.
- Yesterday saw a record-high number of new confirmed coronavirus cases globally.
- India and Brazil are beginning to relax coronavirus lockdown measures, despite the fact that both countries are continuing to see strong growth in new confirmed cases. Brazil confirmed more than 35,000 new cases yesterday, a new record.
- Coronavirus deaths in Latin America and the Caribbean are now 47% of the global daily total, well exceeding those in both the U.S.A. (16%) and Europe (approx. 15%) which shows that the epicenter of the pandemic is in South America.
- Global daily coronavirus deaths globally peaked on April 18th but have begun to rise again over the past two weeks. Total confirmed new cases stand at over 8 million with an average case fatality rate of 5.43%. Both the total number of new cases and deaths continue to fall daily almost everywhere in Europe outside Russia. New cases in the U.S.A. have seen an increase over recent days.
- Brazil continues to see more daily deaths from coronavirus than any other country in the world.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to be increasing most quickly in Brazil, India, Chile, Mexico, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Colombia, Pakistan, Sweden, and Egypt. Brazil has the second-highest number of confirmed cases of any country, followed by Russia and then India.