- Stock markets globally are mostly mixed, with U.S. markets relatively flat ahead of today’s public holiday. The Chinese Hang Seng Index however continues to rise firmly.
- In the Forex market, the U.S. Dollar continues to make gains. The Australian Dollar and Bitcoin are relatively weak.
- Nominated Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen tried to talk up the Dollar over the weekend, saying that the new administration would not pursue a policy of deliberately weakening the Dollar but would allow it find its own natural price.
- Bitcoin has fallen back again to $35k. It is now looking much less likely that Bitcoin will continue to rise and challenge its recent all-time high at $42,000 any time soon.
- U.S. defense officials have anonymously confirmed that there are fears of an attack on President-Elect Joe Biden at Wednesday’s inauguration by elements within the 20,000 national guard troops, who are being vetted before the event. Some analysts see this as the beginning of a quiet political purge within sections of the U.S. military.
- Last Wednesday saw the highest global coronavirus daily death toll yet recorded, at 16,362.
- Global coronavirus deaths have increased dramatically since early October to reach a level approximately 91% higher than the peak last April.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 95 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.14%.
- The fastest progression in terms of immunizing a population against the coronavirus has been in Israel, which has already administered a first shot of the Pfizer vaccine to 27% of its entire population (including 75% of the over-60s) and began administering second doses over a week ago. The U.A.E. ranks second, having now vaccinated 19% of its population. For most of the world, a vaccine seems distant: only 27 countries have vaccinated more than 1% of their population so far.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia, Ukraine, the U.A.E., Uruguay, and Venezuela.