- 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 again hit a new all-time high yesterday.
- The U.S. Federal Reserve will release its statement, forecast, and interest rate later today.
- Yesterday saw a recovery by safe havens. Riskier assets are regaining ground, but the Japanese Yen remains strong.
- The Euro and the British Pound are the strongest major currencies today while the U.S. Dollar is the weakest.
- Global daily coronavirus deaths globally peaked on April 18th but have begun to rise again over the past week. Total confirmed new cases stand at over 7.2 million with an average case fatality rate of 5.68%. 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 failed in its attempt to manipulate the data releases after being ordered by the court to resume full data disclosure.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to be increasing most quickly in Brazil, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, South Africa, and Iraq. 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.