The coronavirus pandemic continues to develop in unfavorable terms. The number of total cases worldwide has surpassed 41.5 million, with the world adding more than 430,000 new ones yesterday.
The United States has a total of 8.5 million Covid-19 confirmations and registered another daily spike yesterday - over 63,000 new cases; this means the US is approaching the maximums from July.
Things are not any better across the Atlantic. France and the United Kingdom all had more than 20,000 new cases yesterday; Germany, Italy, and Spain had over 10,000. Investors now speculate that Europe will be enforcing stricter lockdowns, sacrificing economic growth for the sake of defeating the coronavirus.
Outside of Europe, the pandemic is also still quite serious in India, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and parts of South-East Asia.
In other news, the hopes of a stimulus package in the United States have once again dimmed. Though investors were more hopeful at the start of this week due to the Democrats’ last-ditch effort to bridge the gap and push forward with their proposal, it seems that lawmakers have given up as the bill is not likely to gather approval in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Tonight all eyes will be on Donald Trump and Joe Biden, who will face off in their last debate. This is most likely Trump’s last chance to secure more support from voters. The incumbent President has been trailing behind Biden for weeks now and did not win much from the previous debate. This time around moderators will be allowed to mute the microphones of Trump and Biden if they attempt to interrupt each other.
As today is Thursday, we expect initial and continuing jobless claims data from the United States. The US labor market has struggled and has generally been recovering slower than anticipated. With the new rise in Covid-19 cases, it is unclear whether unemployment will start increasing again.
Both European and American stock indices are on the downturn today. The one bright spot is Tesla, who pleased investors with better than expected earnings, increasing its chances of being included in the S&P 500 index in the near future.
