· CORONAVIRUS UPDATE:
Ø Total confirmed cases: More than 1,997,666
Ø Total deaths: At least 125,597
Ø The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting 210 countries and territories around the world and 2 international conveyances: the Diamond Princess cruise ship harbored in Yokohama, Japan, and the Holland America's MS Zaandam cruise ship.
Ø US cases: At least 613,886 (+26,945), and deaths: 26,047 (2,407)
Ø Spain cases: At least 141,060 (+3,961), and deaths: 18,255 (+499)
Ø Italy cases: At least 162,488 (+2,972), and deaths: 21,067 (+602)
Ø Thailand cases: At least 2,613 (+34), and deaths: 41 (+1)
- Trump says some state economies may open for business by May 1
President Donald Trump said that he believes some states will be able to lift the strict social distancing measures that have strained their economies before the end of April.
“The plans to reopen the country are close to being finalized,” Trump said at a press briefing on the virus in the Rose Garden.
“I will be speaking to all 50 governors very shortly,” Trump said, “And I will then be authorizing each individual governor of each individual state to implement a reopening and a very powerful reopening plan of their state at a time and in a manner as most appropriate.”
“The day will be very close because certain states as you know are in a much different condition and are in a much different place than other states. It’s going to be very very close. Maybe even before the date of May 1st,”
- Trump halts US funding for World Health Organization as it conducts coronavirus review
The U.S. will suspend funding to the World Health Organization while it reviews the agency’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday, saying the international health agency made mistakes that “caused so much death” as the coronavirus spread across the globe.
- IMF chief economist says 100 countries seek pandemic aid; more resources may be needed
The International Monetary Fund’s $1 trillion in lending capacity is “quite substantial” to help members deal with the coronavirus pandemic, but further resources may be needed as the full brunt of the crisis reaches developing countries, its chief economist told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.
Gita Gopinath, the chief economist, said 100 of the IMF’s 189 members, of which half are low-income countries, have contacted the global crisis lender about emergency funding to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus and mitigate its economic impact.
- IMF says the world will ‘very likely’ experience worst recession since the 1930s
The global economy will this year likely suffer the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday, as governments worldwide grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Washington-based organization now expects the global economy to contract by 3% in 2020. By contrast, in January it had forecast a global GDP (gross domestic product) expansion of 3.3% for this year.
“It is very likely that this year the global economy will experience its worst recession since the Great Depression, surpassing that seen during the global financial crisis a decade ago,” Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s chief economist, said in the latest World Economic Outlook report.
In January, the IMF had estimated 3.4% growth for global GDP in 2021; this has now been revised up to 5.8% (although growth is expected to be coming from a lower base following 2020′s projected contraction).
The value of the net short dollar position was $10.5 billion in the week ended April 7, from net shorts of $9.9 billion the previous week. Speculators have been short on the U.S. dollar for four consecutive weeks.
· Fed officials see risks in reopening economy too soon, but acknowledge need to move
U.S. Federal Reserve officials have begun grappling with the complexities of how to simultaneously reopen the country’s economy and protect against a resurgence of coronavirus infections, goals they have argued cannot be successfully separated.
Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said in an interview with Yahoo Finance that throughout the U.S. South “there is a fair amount of variation in terms of how stringent the lockdowns have been.”
· Fed's Barkin: Businesses already planning ways to adapt to post-pandemic world
Businesses are already planning changes in how they operate to be more resilient to health crises like the current coronavirus pandemic, analyzing supply chains and looking for ways to build social distancing into their ongoing operations, Richmond Federal Reserve bank president Thomas Barkin said on Tuesday.
“Folks who are in consumer facing businesses are thinking very aggressively about how you can build separation, cleanliness, a health protocol,” into their operations, Barkin said in an interview with Yahoo Finance. “People are rethinking supply chains — to diversify them. They have seen the implications of an outage.”
· Trump approval rises, but more Americans support Biden for president: poll
The number of Americans who approve of President Donald Trump rose by 5 percentage points over the past week, but registered voters still favored Democrat Joe Biden for president by a small margin, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday.
The poll, conducted Monday and Tuesday, also showed that the public is paying closer attention to the candidates’ views on the coronavirus outbreak than to what they are saying about the economy, healthcare or immigration. And more people think Biden is better suited to guide the country through the crisis.
· Oil drops more than 10% as producer cuts fail to banish demand fears
Oil prices shed more than 10% on Tuesday, with investors apparently unconvinced that record supply cuts could soon balance markets pummeled by the coronavirus pandemic, though a predicted plunge in U.S. shale output provided some support.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 10.26% to settle at $20.11 per barrel, having dropped 1.5% in the previous session. Brent futures fell $2.14, or 6.7%, to $29.60 per barrel after settling up 0.8% on Monday.
Global oil producers worldwide are expected to cut overall output by roughly 19.5 million barrels per day, or nearly 20% of world supply.
However, those commitments - which include voluntary cuts that will happen gradually in places like the United States - will not be enough to reduce the growing worldwide supply glut. Oil prices remain more than 50% down this year.
Reference: Worldodmeters, Reuters, CNBC
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