As of today, the number of coronavirus cases around the world has surpassed 38 million. The United States has over 8 million cases, India has around 7.1 million, and Brazil has 5.1 million. Among the three most affected countries, both India and Brazil are seeing lower daily infection numbers, while the US is still experiencing big fluctuations and is now officially seeing some people contracting the virus for the second time.
Europe continues to struggle with the second wave of the pandemic. France, Spain, and Germany are seeing high daily increases in the number of Covid-19 cases, as is the United Kingdom.
Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson had to pause the clinical trial of its Covid-19 vaccine because one of the people participating in the study got sick. A similar incident occurred with one of the other vaccines in development, but the illness was found to be unrelated to the trial in that case. It is possible that Johnson & Johnson’s trial will also restart in a few days.
Stocks in focus today include tech giants Amazon and Apple. Amazon is holding its annual Prime Day, a time when the online retailer typically sells a lot more goods than usual. Investors are interested in this year’s Prime Day as an indicator of how well consumer spending is recovering, considering that the United States is still in the grips of the coronavirus pandemic.
Apple, meanwhile, will be unveiling its iPhone 12 today. Depending on how well the launch event goes, the company’s shares may either rise or fall in price.
US stock indices, with the exception of the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100, are on the downturn today.
In terms of economic reports, today Germany published its most recent inflation rate data, which was in line with the forecast at -0.2%. However, the country’s ZEW economic survey was way below the forecast, coming in at 56.1 versus a prediction of 73.
The United Kingdom strongly disappointed investors with poor employment reports, with the unemployment rate stuck at 4.5% against an expectation of 4.3%.
The United States also disappointed, with a core inflation rate of 1.7% against a forecast of 1.8% in September.
