- Global stock markets, especially the S&P 500 Index, made their strongest falls in several weeks, as markets digest the strong rise in new coronavirus cases and deaths. Markets have stabilized in recent hours.
- Yesterday over half a million confirmed new coronavirus cases were diagnosed for the first time ever – a record high. Recent days have seen over 200,000 new cases confirmed daily in Europe alone. France and Germany have announced new 4-week nationwide lockdowns as an attempt to stem the tide of cases. The value of the Euro has been hit.
- The Bank of Japan has kept monetary policy unchanged but has trimmed its economic and price forecasts. The Yen moved little on the news.
- Forex markets are seeing the Japanese Yen and the U.S. Dollar as the strongest major currencies, while the Euro is the weakest.
- The Turkish Lira has lost about 5% of its value in the past few weeks, as it continues to fall to new all-time lows as a currency.
- Tightening opinion polling suggests that President Trump needs an approximately 1.9% swing from current polls in a few battleground states to win the U. S. presidential election on 3rd November, despite Biden’s considerably stronger polling lead nationwide. President Trump has seen polls tighten in his favor over the past two weeks.
- Coronavirus daily global death tolls have begun to rise more strongly in recent days, with deaths in Latin America and the Caribbean continuing to fall, while the U.S.A. account for about 20% of the global total, and Europe approximately 22%.
- The European Union is now seeing more new coronavirus cases and deaths than any other area, with a short-term average of over 220,000 new cases daily. New cases and deaths are also rising strongly in the U.K.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases stand at over 44.4 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.64%.
- India has more than 8 million confirmed coronavirus cases, more than any other nation except the U.S.A. which has confirmed more than 8.8 million cases. The U.S.A. is the single country with the highest daily death toll, reporting more than 1,000 deaths yesterday, although the Eurozone is now slightly exceeding that number.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Albania, Algeria, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Burma, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, Italy, Kenya, Kosovo, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Morocco, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, U.S.A., Ukraine, the U.A.E., and the U.K.
Forex Today: Stocks Fall as Coronavirus Hits New Highs
Adam Lemon
High level of new coronavirus infections in Europe and the U.S.A. triggers flight to safety and new lockdowns