As of today, the world has seen over 40 million coronavirus cases. The United States is approaching 8.5 million, India has around 7.6 million, and Brazil is home to 5.2 million of the infections. Meanwhile, other countries that have over one million cases include Russia, Spain, and Argentina.
Europe continues to see more and more cases each day, with another 130,000 new Covid-19 infections registered yesterday on the continent. Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Russia are the most heavily affected countries in Europe at the moment, but outbreaks are observed everywhere.
Ireland announced a six-week nation-wide lockdown to stop the spread of the virus, while Wales is going to close down for two weeks. If these two lockdowns, especially the Irish one as it is longer, prove successful at lowering the number of Covid-19 cases, other EU member states might follow suit.
The United States is seeing another worrisome bump up in cases, with 57,000 new Covid-19 infections yesterday. In the US, the coronavirus outbreak is back to its critical levels previously seen in July.
Despite all of this, President Trump again criticized the country’s top infectious disease expert Dr. Fauci for the sake of his own re-election campaign. The President’s team has consistently talked about the pandemic in the past tense as if it is something America has already overcome, not an ongoing crisis. In addition, Trump and his team have flaunted the safety measures recommended by Fauci and the CDC.
Today is also the deadline that Nancy Pelosi gave the White House to accept the House of Representatives’ proposal for a stimulus bill. Most likely there will be no agreement, as it appears that both Democrats and Republicans are willing to wait out the elections, which are in just two weeks.
For those of you watching the stock markets, Netflix will be publishing its quarterly earnings today. The company is expected to have done well considering the pandemic and the increase in the demand for at-home entertainment. US stock indices are on the rise.
In terms of economic reports, today is shaping up to be quite boring as not much data is going to be released. The trade balance of Switzerland was in line with the forecasts; there will be several speeches by central banks that aren’t expected to shock the markets; later in the day the United States will publish reports on building permits and housing starts.
