Today the financial markets have a few things to look forward to, but nothing too major that would affect assets very strongly.
Arguably the most important release of the day is the latest jobless information from the United States. Both initial and continuing jobless claims were lower than forecasted, which is a good sign about the recovery of the US job market, an area that has been problematic since the start of the pandemic.
The United States also released the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index for October, which failed to meet investors’ expectations. Other industrial reports from the US published recently were also disappointing.
As for the stock market, today all major US indices will trade slightly lower as the earnings season continues. Yesterday Tesla pleased investors with another record quarter. Today all eyes will be on Intel and AT&T.
Tech giants Facebook and Twitter also got some attention as ex-President Donald Trump announced the launch of his own social platform. Trump, who is banned from Facebook and Twitter, will return to social media on his own Truth Social. Though he positions his own platform as a competitor, the stocks of both Facebook and Twitter only decreased by the slightest on this news and will likely be back to normal in no time.
In China stock indices are also trading lower because Evergrande Group is inching ever closer to an official default. The company did not manage to sell one of its branches as it had hoped to in an effort to raise cash to meet at least some of its liabilities. Tomorrow will mark 30 days since the first missed payment and with Evergrande not likely to pay what it owes on time, its grace period will expire and the company will default for real.
Lastly, we need to take another look at the coronavirus pandemic. There have been almost 243 million cases since it began, with close to 5 million deaths. The international daily infection rate has gone down from its August peak, but remains stubbornly around 400K per day.
The top ten countries with the highest number of cases declared yesterday are the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Germany, India, Romania, and Brazil, (in that order).
Russia will be the first major world power to enter a fall lockdown. It will be closing all factories for at least a week, together with indoor businesses such as stores and restaurants in Moscow.
The United Kingdom is also under pressure to enter a new lockdown as daily infections remain over 50,000 per day, but Boris Johnson’s government has so far refused to tighten the restrictions there.
