- President Trump has vowed to continue his legal challenge to the recent presidential election result, but has allowed formal work to begin on a transition of power to Joe Biden on 20th January 2021. This has boosted stocks and risk sentiment enough to push several stock markets to new all-time records.
- Stock markets are mostly higher over the Asian session after the S&P 500 Index closed at a record 3635, with the Japanese Nikkei 225 Index up by more than 0.5% to reach a new all-time high price. Record high closes usually mean that stock markets are likely to continue to rise.
- WTI Crude Oil is facing increasing demand and rose strongly yesterday, trading at a new 8-month high price above $45.
- The British pound and the euro are the strongest major currencies, and the Japanese yen and precious metals are the weakest. The EUR/USD and GBP/USD currency pairs closed yesterday at new 50-day high prices, meaning their prices will probably rise again today.
- Yesterday’s U.S. CB Consumer Confidence data came in worse than expected, which may have negatively affected the U.S. dollar.
- There are some important data releases due today concerning the U.S. dollar. The FOMC will be releasing the minutes of its most recent meeting, and there will be releases of Preliminary GDP, Unemployment Claims, and Revised UoM Consumer Sentiment.
- Last Friday saw 662,957 confirmed new coronavirus cases diagnosed worldwide – a record high. New cases continue to increase exponentially.
- Yesterday a record high number of 11,720 coronavirus deaths were reported globally.
- Coronavirus daily global death tolls are continuing to increase sharply to new highs 60% higher than the former record peak 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 22% of global coronavirus deaths, Europe 47%, with Latin America at 19%.
- The European Union is now seeing new coronavirus cases begin to fall, but is still more afflicted than any other geographical area, as lockdowns have an effect. New cases in the E.U. are considerably higher than in the U.S., with a higher amount of deaths too. However, these numbers are still increasing in the U.S. while the rate of new cases is clearly starting to decline in the E.U. although deaths continue to increase.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases stand at over 59.7 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.36%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Burma, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mali, Mexico, Pakistan, Panama, Russia, Serbia, Sudan, Trinidad, Turkey, U.S.A., Ukraine, and Uruguay.