- Stock markets globally are mostly a little lower on a quiet news day. The Japanese Nikkei 225 Index has risen slightly, up by 0.53% this session to make a likely new all-time high closing price.
- Safe havens have benefitted over recent hours, with the Japanese yen, gold, and the U.S. dollar stronger, while riskier currencies such as the British Pound have sold off.
- President Trump is continuing his legal challenge to provisional ballot counts in several swing states, alleging that a large number of votes have been illegally admitted, especially in Nevada and Pennsylvania. Courts will begin to hear the cases this week and there will be mandatory recounts in Georgia and Wisconsin, by hand in the case of Georgia, which may help assuage allegations that software errors have materially affected results. Final results have not been certified from any states, and the winner of the electoral college is not ratified until 14th December. Although analysts generally concur President Trump has no way to remain in office, betting markets are still taking bets on the eventual certified winner, with President Trump implied a 9% chance of remaining in power.
- Yesterday saw 613,741 confirmed new coronavirus cases diagnosed worldwide – just slightly below last Friday’s record high.
- Coronavirus daily global death tolls are rising sharply to a new high well above the former record high made last April. Deaths in Latin America and the Caribbean continuing to fall, while rising strongly elsewhere, notably in Europe and in the U.S.A. The U.S.A. accounts for about 17% of the global total, Europe 44%, with Latin America at 18%.
- The European Union is now seeing more new coronavirus cases and deaths than any other area, about double that of the U.S., with a short-term average of over 210,000 new cases daily. The death rate there is double that in the U.S.A with approximately 2,700 deaths per day compared to about 1,000 in the U.S. Deaths are also continuing to rise strongly in the U.K.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases stand at over 52.1 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.46%.
- India has more than 8.6 million confirmed coronavirus cases, more than any other nation except the U.S.A., which has confirmed more than 10.4 million cases.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Albania, Algeria, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belize, Canada, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Lithuania, Mali, Morocco, Pakistan, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Sweden, Turkey, U.S.A., Ukraine, the U.K., and Uruguay.