The race for the White House continues. Four days in, we still don’t have a clear answer as to who the next President of the United States will be. Joe Biden appears in a much better position than Donald Trump and is currently leading in the swing states that will decide the final outcome.
Nevertheless, Donald Trump has lashed out via his Twitter account, claiming that mail-in votes are illegal and that he is winning in the “only” legal vote, i.e. the in-person voting on Tuesday, which gave him an initial advantage. Trump’s campaign will try to challenge the validity of the ballots, but several court cases have already been dismissed because Trump’s team has been present at the counting center as observers. There has been no evidence of voter fraud.
Besides the elections, today on the economic calendar we have lots of other reports coming from North America. Canada will publish its employment change and unemployment rate reports for October, as will the United States later today. The US data is of special interest to investors because of the slow recovery seen in the labor market due to the resurgence of the coronavirus.
Speaking of which, the US broke its own record for the most Covid-19 cases confirmed in one day yesterday, adding 121,000 new cases to its tally of almost 10 million. This is the highest daily number seen anywhere in the world.
France also broke its record, confirming 58,046 new coronavirus infections on Thursday. The numbers have been rising despite the country entering a nation-wide lockdown this week. Italy had close to 35,000 new cases yesterday, yet another record maximum. Germany, too, experienced its highest daily increase ever, adding 21,757 new cases yesterday in what is clearly a trend. The situation remains critical in Europe and is pressuring the financial markets.
Despite the broad market pessimism and demand for safe havens, the US dollar has relaxed, in large part due to the prospect of Biden’s win and increased government spending under a Democratic president. Gold, however, is gaining in value, trading at $1,957 today, its highest in almost two months.
