- Stock markets are generally very strong. The U.S. market indices remain firm and bullish, with the S&P 500 Index having recovered more than 80% of its 2020 losses. The NASDAQ Index hit a new all-time high yesterday.
- Last Friday the U.S. announced a surprise monthly increase of over 2 million new jobs, which has boosted economic optimism.
- Yesterday saw a strong rise in “risk” assets, but safe havens have made a recovery during the Asian session.
- The Japanese Yen and the U.S. Dollar are the strongest major currency today while the Australian Dollar is the weakest.
- WTI Crude Oil traded above $40 per barrel yesterday.
- Coronavirus deaths in Latin America and the Caribbean are now 44% of the global daily total, which is again increasing exponentially, well exceeding those in both the U.S.A. (20%) and Europe (approx. 18%) which shows that the epicenter of the pandemic is in South America.
- Italy expects to see its GDP shrink by 8.3% over 2020.
- Protests over policing in the U.S. die down as congressional democrats introduce police reform bill.
- Daily reported new coronavirus cases hit an all-time high yesterday. Daily deaths globally peaked on April 18th but have begun to rise again over the past week. Total confirmed new cases stand at over 7.1 million with an average case fatality rate of 5.71%. 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 uptick over recent days
- Brazil is seeing more daily deaths from coronavirus than any other country in the world. The government has started trying to manipulate data releases.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to be increasing most quickly in Brazil, India, Pakistan, Mexico, Sweden, South Africa, Bahrain, Colombia, and Egypt. Brazil has the second highest number of confirmed cases of any country, followed by Russia and then the U.K. New York has begun to relax lockdown restrictions and Moscow will follow soon.