- The U.S. Federal Reserve maintained its interest rate at the current level, making no change.
- The U.S. stock market’s S&P 500 Index initially rose somewhat, but has given up gains, while global stock markets remain mixed.
- The U.S. Dollar has strengthened during the Asian session.
- Gold and Silver failed to make new highs yesterday, and are descending gently in U.S. Dollar terms, especially Silver.
- The EUR/USD currency pair reached a new 18-month high yesterday above 1.1800, but has sold off weakly during the Asian session. Higher prices are likely over the coming days.
- The U.S. Dollar is in a confirmed long-term downwards trend after making a technical “death cross” two weeks ago, so further movement against the Dollar is still likely to resume over the coming days.
- Republicans in the U.S. have proposed a new $1 trillion coronavirus stimulus package, which would include an additional $1,200 payment to every adult American.
- Coronavirus global deaths tolls have begun to rise in a steady trend again, with deaths in Latin America and the Caribbean at 44% of the global daily total, well exceeding those in both the U.S.A. (17%) and Europe (approx. 6%) which shows that the epicenter of the pandemic is well established in Latin America. Deaths in the U.S.A. have been rising for three weeks, with states in the south and west seeing high rates of new infections.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases stand at over 17 million with an average case fatality rate of 3.92%. Yesterday saw the highest level of new confirmed cases worldwide yet at over 290,000. However, global mortality over recent weeks is lower than it was during the first peak in April.
- Brazil and the U.S.A. saw almost the same number of daily coronavirus deaths yesterday, at higher numbers than any other country.
- The Australian state of Victoria saw its worst daily toll of deaths and new confirmed coronavirus cases yet, prompting fears that the localized lockdown is not effective.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in the United States, Albania, Algeria, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ethiopia, India, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Kosovo, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Spain, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela.