The tensions between the United States and China continue to grow, as the US is putting the blame for the coronavirus on China. President Donald Trump has endorsed a conspiracy theory that states Covid-19 was artificially created in a Chinese lab, which failed to contain it. There is currently no evidence to support this view.
Regardless of that, Donald Trump has said that even the Phase-1 agreement that he fought so hard to secure is now in jeopardy. The US President stated that he would go back on the agreement if China does not honor its commitments. He also threatened further sanctions against China as punishment for the coronavirus pandemic.
Naturally, the stock markets were spooked by the renewed threat of a trade war with China, causing all US indices to drop. Gold, however, is increasing in price due to the newly added risk to the market.
Meanwhile, the situation is improving in Europe, where many countries are gradually reopening their economies and putting in place plans to end the lockdowns completely this month. The number of new coronavirus cases continues to decline in the EU, and so does the death toll, indicating that the region is past the peak of the outbreak.
Russia right now is the country where the coronavirus is of the highest concern, with cases still rapidly increasing. Just today there were over 10,000 new cases in Russia, bringing the total number of Covid-19 infections there up to 145,000. The world total is just over 3.5 million cases.
