CORONAVIRUS UPDATES:
- Total confirmed cases: More than 199,264
- Total deaths: At least 7,994
- Affecting 167 countries and 1 international conveyance (the Diamond Princess cruise ship).
- US cases: At least 6,524, and deaths: 116
- Italy cases: At least 31,506, and deaths: 2,503
- Iran cases: At least 16,169, and deaths: 988
- Thailand cases: At least 212, and deaths: 1
· The safe-haven yen gained sharply, but the dollar held onto hefty overnight gains against other currencies on Wednesday, as fears over the coronavirus pandemic kept markets frazzled despite massive injections of liquidity by central banks.
The yen rose 0.8% to 106.80 per dollar with a flight to safety in the Asia afternoon as stock markets around the region extended losses.
The pound pared some gains to sit 0.4% higher at $1.2094 and the euro was steady at $1.1007.
Export exposed currencies fared much worse.
The Australian dollar has lost nearly 15% against the greenback this year and fell below 60 cents for the first time since 2003 overnight. It last stood at $0.5930, while the kiwi was $0.5942.
· European Union member nations agreed Tuesday to close the EU’s external borders to most people from other countries for 30 days in a dramatic new effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced the planned closings of the massive union’s external borders at a press conference.
Movement of people within the European Union’s 27 member nations will still be allowed under the restrictions.
Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission said the United Kingdom is not applying restrictions to their external borders, even though it had been invited to do so.
· Joe Biden will win the Arizona Democratic primary, NBC News projected Tuesday, marking another win for the former vice president.
Biden was widely anticipated to walk away from the primary with the bulk of Arizona’s 67 pledged delegates. His blowout performance on Super Tuesday earlier this month quashed Sanders’ momentum and gave Biden a lead that pollsters increasingly consider to be insurmountable.
Earlier Tuesday, NBC had also projected victories for Biden in Florida and Illinois.
· Australia declares emergency, warns coronavirus crisis could last six months
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday declared a “human biosecurity emergency” and said the country’s citizens should abandon all overseas travel because of the coronavirus epidemic that he warned could last at least six months.
The formal declaration gives the government the power to close off cities or regions, impose curfews and order people to quarantine, if deemed necessary to contain the spread of the virus.
The upgrade in official advice to an unprecedented “Level 4: Do not travel” to any country in the world, was accompanied by a ban on any non-essential indoor gatherings of more than 100 people.
· U.S. President Donald Trump announced a plan on Tuesday to send money to Americans immediately to ease the economic shock from the coronavirus crisis and said military-style hospitals will likely be deployed to virus hot zones to care for patients.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, appearing with Trump in the White House press briefing room, said he was talking with congressional leaders on a plan to send checks immediately to displaced Americans. Trump said some people should get $1,000.
· Brazil will seek authorization for a state of emergency to allow it to scrap fiscal targets and free up funds to combat the coronavirus crisis, the government said on Tuesday, as President Jair Bolsonaro announced his second COVID-19 test was negative.
· South Korea reported 93 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, maintaining a downward trend in daily infections, but concerns about new outbreaks around small clusters persisted.
It brought South Korea’s total infections to 8,413, the KCDC said. The death toll rose by three to 84.
· The highly contagious novel coronavirus that has exploded into a global pandemic can remain viable and infectious in droplets in the air for hours and on surfaces up to days, according to a new study that should offer guidance to help people avoid contracting the respiratory illness called COVID-19.
Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, attempted to mimic the virus deposited from an infected person onto everyday surfaces in a household or hospital setting, such as through coughing or touching objects.
On plastic and stainless steel, viable virus could be detected after three days. On cardboard, the virus was not viable after 24 hours. On copper, it took 4 hours for the virus to become inactivated.
In terms of half-life, the research team found that it takes about 66 minutes for half the virus particles to lose function if they are in an aerosol droplet.
That means that after another hour and six minutes, three quarters of the virus particles will be essentially inactivated but 25% will still be viable.
The amount of viable virus at the end of the third hour will be down to 12.5%, according to the research led by Neeltje van Doremalen of the NIAID’s Montana facility at Rocky Mountain Laboratories.
· Among the industries seeing the greatest impact from the fallout are hospitality and travel (89%), education (87%) and media and entertainment (80%). Meanwhile, production firms in agriculture, factories, mines and utilities reported some uptick in revenues.
Nevertheless, business leaders across the board (95%) said they’re taking new measures curb the impact of the virus. That includes communicating more regularly with employees (68%), adopting new health and safety procedures (67%), cancelling major events (64%) and halting business travel (53%).
· Oil prices fell for a third session on Wednesday to be down about 17% so far this week as the outlook for fuel demand darkened amid travel and social lockdowns triggered by the coronavirus epidemic.
Brent crude LCOc1 was trading down 43 cents, or 1.5%, at $28.30 a barrel by 0650 GMT, after dropping to $28.26 the lowest since early 2016. The international benchmark fell 4.3% on Tuesday.
U.S. crude Clc1 was down 47 cents, or 1.7%, at $26.48 a barrel, after falling as low as $26.20, also the lowest in more than four years. West Texas Intermediate fell 6% on Tuesday.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC, FXStreet,Worldometers
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