Today the government heads of all 27 European Union countries are meeting in Brussels to discuss the European Commission’s proposed recovery fund. The 750 billion euro stimulus plan has divided the union, as some countries desperately need the money after Covid-19 wreaked havoc on their economies, while others remain financially conservative and refuse to allow grants.
The talks, which will take two days, will be difficult and might not produce any results. Many experts anticipate that the proposal will be tabled once more to the next summit. In addition, government heads will also decide on the EU’s budget for the next few years.
So far the news of the summit, even though a compromise is most probably not going to happen, has been beneficial for the euro, bringing it to 4-month highs against the US dollar.
Meanwhile, today the world has reached 13.9 million coronavirus cases. The United States has just under 3.7 confirmed Covid-19 cases, having added 73,000 new ones yesterday in yet another daily record.
Furthermore, Brazil surpassed 2 million coronavirus infections, and India reached 1 million yesterday. South Africa is also quickly rising through the ranks, overtaking other Covid-19 hotspots like Mexico, Spain, and Chile, and is now the sixth most affected country, with 324,000 confirmed cases.
In other news, China and the United States continue to be a concern for the markets. The United States was considering taking action against popular Chinese-owned social medium TikTok (which India recently banned). In addition, the government is also mulling over a plan to ban Chinese politicians from entering the United States.
In terms of the stock market, today we see a slight increase in US stock indices, which dropped yesterday on less-than-ideal initial jobless claims data. Chinese stocks have also had a poor week and have stabilized at lower levels than last Friday’s.
