- Stocks and risky assets took a hit near the end of the New York session as the U.S. took a strong line against China’s maritime claims.
- The NASDAQ 100 technology index made an especially strong daily reversal. Netflix fell by more than 4%; Amazon by more than 3% on the day. The Asian session saw a continued fall, with the Japanese Nikkei 225 Index down by 0.94%.
- Gold and Silver sold off strongly. Gold looks unlikely to make new highs this week, but Silver might.
- WTI Crude Oil looks to be making a bearish turn after several days struggling to get established above $40 per barrel.
- Forex markets have seen safe havens such as the Japanese Yen and U.S. Dollar gain in recent hours. However, the Australian Dollar and the Euro maintain some strength and may bounce back. The U.S. Dollar is in a confirmed long-term downwards trend after making a technical “death cross” last week.
- Friday saw a record-high number of daily total new coronavirus confirmed cases globally at 236,918. However, the daily total has declined for three days running. The global death rate is beginning to rise significantly again.
- California has re-imposed closures as new coronavirus cases soared to over 8,000 daily. Other areas that initially appeared to successfully suppress the coronavirus, such as Australia and Israel, as well as several U.S. states, have re-imposed closure restrictions.
- Coronavirus deaths in Latin America and the Caribbean are 48% of the global daily total, well exceeding those in both the U.S.A. (14%) and Europe (approx. 10%) which shows that the epicenter of the pandemic is well established in Latin America. Deaths in the U.S.A. have been rising for two weeks.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases stand at over 13.1 million with an average case fatality rate of 4.37%.
- The number of new coronavirus cases is rising strongly in India, which has now overtaken Russia to stand at third place globally with over 906,000 total confirmed cases.
- 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 now increasing most quickly in the United States, Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ivory Coast, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Kosovo, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Oman, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela.