Today the markets are leaning towards safe havens once more on renewed fears about the coronavirus pandemic.
The United Kingdom announced a six-week strict national lockdown, after a series of limited lockdowns in November and December failed to stop the spread of the new, highly-contagious variation of Covid-19.
The UK marked its highest-ever daily increase in coronavirus cases yesterday, confirming almost 59,000 of them. This marks about a week of daily increases that have stayed above 50,000. London hospitals are at maximum capacity and have started flying patients to other parts of the UK. The United Kingdom is proceeding with its Covid-19 vaccination plan, but it is going slowly and millions will remain unprotected for months.
Germany is also going to extend its current lockdown. The country was successful in bringing daily infections under 15,000 and managed to reduce unemployment slightly with a more relaxed lockdown than seen in other countries. But it seems what Germany has won from the softer measures will be compensated with time, as the lockdown will stay in place for longer than originally planned.
Cases in the United States also spiked above 240,000 around the New Year’s holidays, and have dropped to 190,000 per day as of yesterday. These numbers, the variations included, have become the trend for December in the United States. So far there aren’t any signs of the pandemic letting up there either.
Meanwhile, Japan is considering a lockdown as the infection rate has risen to above 3,000 per day in the past few weeks.
Aside from the coronavirus, the biggest event to watch out for today is the election of two Senators in the state of Georgia in the United States. The final two seats will determine whether the Senate remains under Republican control or if there will be a more even distribution of power for the next two years.
Today US stock indices are doing a bit better than yesterday with gains all-around. Traders might want to pay attention to Amazon shares today.
In other news, Russia and OPEC are once again at odds. In light of the high risks that the coronavirus still poses to the demand for oil, OPEC wants to hold off on the planned output increase of 500,000 barrels. However, Russia is eager to benefit from the current price of oil and is pushing for the increase. The OPEC+ bloc is still debating what action to take today.
