- Major global stock markets mostly rose slightly yesterday, but the Asian session has shown a more mixed picture. The S&P 500 Index closed up by 0.52% yesterday, but the Nikkei 225 Index is almost unchanged over the current trading day.
- Technically, it appears the recent stock market selloff was a natural correction and not a significant trend change. It seems somewhat likely the recovery will continue.
- The U.S. Dollar is weaker, in line with the long long-term bearish trend established following June’s “death cross” in the USD Index.
- The Forex market is now seeing almost all other currencies rise against the USD, with the Japanese Yen looking like the strongest currency as Japan gets a new Prime Minister set on a continuation of his predecessor’s policies.
- The U.S. Federal Reserve will be releasing its data, forecasts, and decision on interest rates later today, which can be expected to inject more directional movement into markets.
- The WHO reported a new record daily high in global confirmed cases over last weekend.
- Coronavirus daily global death tolls have been falling slightly for more than 6 weeks, with deaths in Latin America and the Caribbean at 41% of the global daily total, well exceeding those in both the U.S.A. (14%) and Europe (approx. 6%) which shows that the epicenter of the pandemic is well established in Latin America. However, the number of new cases has been rising quite strongly in the European Union and the U.K.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases stand at over 29.5 million with an average case fatality rate of 3.16%. Global mortality over recent weeks is lower than it was during the first peak in April.
- India has more than 5 million confirmed coronavirus cases, more than any other nation except the U.S.A. India, Brazil, and the U.S.A. each saw more than 1,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths yesterday. The U.S.A. has recorded more than 200,000 deaths.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burma, Canada, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Georgia, Greece, Honduras, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, Oman, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Trinidad, Tunisia, U.A.E., Ukraine, the U.K., and Uzbekistan.