- Stock markets are mostly higher as Pfizer announces plans to begin vaccinating the American public against coronavirus as early as 11 December, if emergency approval for the vaccine is granted by US authorities.
- Stock markets and other risky assets are mostly higher.
- The British pound and the New Zealand dollar are the strongest major currencies, and the U.S. dollar weakest. The GBP/USD currency pair closed at a new 50-day high last Friday, meaning its price will probably rise today. The NZD/USD currency pair has reached a new 2-year high price.
- The price of WTI Crude Oil is again close to reaching a new 2-month high price, as demand for oil intensifies.
- President Trump is still fighting certification of presidential election results in several states, but his attempt appears to be a lost cause. Betting markets have stopped taking bets on who the president will be on 21st January 2021.
- Results will be released today of manufacturing & services sentiment in France and Germany, which may affect the price of the euro.
- Last Friday saw 662,957 confirmed new coronavirus cases diagnosed worldwide – a record high. New cases continue to increase exponentially.
- Last Wednesday a record high number of 11,239 global coronavirus deaths were reported.
- 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.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases stand at over 58.6 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.37%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Brazil, Burma, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, Kosovo, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Mali, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Sudan, Trinidad, Turkey, U.S.A., Ukraine, and Uruguay.