Stocks slumped around the world as investors rushed into haven assets after the delta coronavirus variant cast a pall over the economic recovery, while tension between the U.S. and China escalated. In a reversal of the reopening trade that has powered this year’s equity rally, cyclical companies bore the brunt of Monday’s rout. Commodity, financial and industrial shares led losses in the S&P 500, which fell the most since May. Airlines and cruise operators tumbled amid concern over further travel restrictions. After recently plunging to pre-pandemic levels, the Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX, soared. European stocks had their biggest drop of 2021, following a selloff in Asia. With the risk-off sentiment spreading across global markets, Treasury 10-year yields spiraled to their lowest since February, while the dollar rose alongside the yen and the Swiss franc. Despite the classic safety trade, gold retreated. Oil sank after OPEC+ agreed to boost supply into 2022. Meantime, Bitcoin’s slide pushed the world’s largest digital currency closer to US$30,000. The resurgence of COVID-19 is unsettling global investors, who are considering whether new lockdown restrictions will sap the economic rebound and reverse an equity rally that had driven stocks to a record. For Matt Miskin, co-chief investment strategist at John Hancock Investment Management, the move to “higher-quality assets” such as Treasuries is justified. In a Bloomberg Television interview, he said that “we’re in a decelerating growth environment.” “Risk aversion is firmly in place as the Delta COVID variant spread is triggering a flight to safety,” wrote Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda. “Equities were ripe for a pullback given Wall Street was in agreement that this is ‘as good as it gets’ for peak earnings, economic growth, monetary stimulus. It is hard to hold risky assets over the short-term now.” Geopolitical jitters also resurfaced on Monday after the U.S., the U.K. and their allies said the Chinese government has been the mastermind behind a series of malicious ransomware, data theft and cyber-espionage attacks against public and private entities — including the sprawling Microsoft Exchange hack earlier this year.
U.S. surgeon general defends CDC mask change, blames tech companies for COVID deaths
https://youtu.be/hV37a62gX5k
I have bad news and bad news: Israeli government says Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine provides ‘significantly less’ protection against the Indian ‘Delta’ variant than health officials had hoped
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is ‘weaker’ against the Indian ‘Delta’ variant than health officials had hoped, a new report from Israel claims On Friday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett held a discussion about the coronavirus with his Cabinet at the Kirya in Tel Aviv. Israel once led the entire world in the vaccine race, vaccinating 61 percent of its population with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine – but is now dealing with a surge in cases. On Thursday, the test positivity rate was 1.52 percent, which is the highest number since March. As of June 6, the vaccine provides only 64 percent protection against infection from the variant, according to the Israeli government. ‘At the moment, there is an idea that is spreading to the effect that the protective ability of the existing vaccines against the Delta mutation is weaker than what we had hoped,’ Bennett said. ‘We do not know exactly to what degree the vaccine helps, but it is significantly less. We are all hoping to see a slowdown but the facts at the moment are that there is no slowdown, not here and not in the world.’ The Delta variant has been labeled as a ‘double mutant’ by India’s Health Ministry because it carries two mutations: L452R and E484Q. L452R is the same mutation seen with the California homegrown variant and E484Q is similar to the mutation seen in the Brazilian and South African variants. Both of the mutations occur on key parts of the virus that allows it to enter and infect human cells. Bennett also addressed the crises in the UK and the US, both of which are using the Pfizer vaccine and are overrun with the Delta variant. On Thursday, the U.S. recorded 28,412 new cases with a seven-day rolling average of 26,079, a 135 percent increase from the 11,067 average recorded two weeks ago. Nearly every state and the District of Columbia have seen infections rise in the last week, according to a DailyMail.com analysis of Johns Hopkins data. What’s more, about 40 states have seen their infection rates increase by at least 50 percent with some of the biggest rises seen in hotspots such as Arkansas, Louisiana and Missouri. With cases doubling every two weeks, this means the U.S. could see 50,000 cases per day by the end of July and 100,000 per day at the end of the month. Meanwhile, Britain’s daily coronavirus cases hit 50,000 on Friday for the first time since the depths of the second wave in January. Figures from the Department of Health show that the number of positive tests, which sits at 51,870, has risen by 45 percent in a week. Hospitalizations and deaths are now both rising steadily following the ferocious surge in cases, which top experts blamed on the relaxation of restrictions and Euro 2020. ‘At the moment, the Delta mutation is leaping forward around the world, including in vaccinated countries such as Britain, Israel and the US,’ Bennett said. ‘In Britain, in recent days, we have seen a jump in the number of children who are being hospitalized on a daily basis. This is a development that we are aware of; we are dealing with it rationally and responsibly.’ ‘On the one hand, the vaccines are effective against the virus; therefore, we are seeing to the necessary continuity of vaccinations and inventories. ‘Whoever hoped that the vaccines alone would solve the problem, they are not. What is necessary is a strategy that brings as many vaccines as possible on the one hand and, on the other, also understands the limits of the vaccine.’
U.S. COVID-19 cases more than double in two weeks as delta variant spreads fast, and WHO warns ‘pandemic nowhere near finished’
WHO sees ‘strong likelihood’ of new and possibly more dangerous variants of concern ‘that may be even more challenging to control’ The number of new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. has more than doubled in the last two weeks, as the delta variant continues to race across the nation, infecting both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, who account for more than 99% of recent fatalities. The average case tally on Wednesday was 26,513, according to a New York Times tracker, (link)up 111% from two weeks ago. Hospitalizations have climbed 22% and deaths are up 5% in the same time frame, albeit they remain at far lower levels than at the peak of the crisis in the spring of 2020. Overall, 47 states are showing new cases up 10% from a week ago, according to Johns Hopkins University data (link). Experts are increasingly describing two Americas, divided between the vaccinated and unvaccinated, with the latter group putting themselves and others at risk of infection as the vaccine program grinds to a halt. Delta variant drove COVID-19 casesare higher across the globe last week — including in the U.S (link). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Infection’s vaccine tracker (link) is showing that 160 million Americans are fully inoculated, equal to 48.2% of the overall population. That means they have had two shots of the vaccines developed by Pfizer (PFE) and German partner BioNTech (BNTX) and Moderna (MRNA), or one shot of Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ) one-dose regimen. The AstraZeneca (AZN.LN) vaccine has not been granted emergency use authorization in the U.S. Among adults 18-years-and-older, 59.1% are fully vaccinated, while 67.8% have received at least one dose, still short of President Joe Biden’s goal of having 70% of the adult population receive at least one shot by the July 4 holiday. The numbers are barely budging day-to-day now, despite concerns expressed by healthcare experts. “We’re losing time here. The delta variant is spreading, people are dying, we can’t actually just wait for things to get more rational,” Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health told CNN Wednesday. The World Health Organization’s emergency committee warned that with delta and three other variants of concern still circulating, the “pandemic is nowhere near finished.” Instead, there is a “strong likelihood for the emergence and global spread of new and possibly more dangerous variants of concern that may be even more challenging to control,” the committee said in a statement emergency-committee-regarding-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-19)-pandemic). Elsewhere, Indonesia set another daily case record of 54,517 and has overtaken India as the Asian epicenter of the pandemic, CNN reported. At least 991 fatalities were recorded in the nation of about 170 million people on Wednesday to push the total to 69,210. Russia had 25,293 new cases and a record death toll of 791 on Thursday, according to The Moscow Times, raising the overall death toll to 146,069, the highest official number in Europe. In China, local governments are moving aggressively to push residents to get vaccinated and some are planning to bar them from accessing public venues if they refuse, The Wall Street Journal reported. Roughly a dozen counties and cities in the eastern provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian and Jiangxi have set late-August deadlines for people 18 years or older to complete a two-shot vaccine regimen, according to similarly worded online statements. Many of them also set dates in late July by when unvaccinated people would be barred from entering schools, libraries, prisons, nursing homes and inpatient facilities at hospitals without a valid medical exemption, the paper reported. China has fully vaccinated more than 40% of its population of 1.4 billion so far. A cluster of COVID cases at a hotel hosting Olympic athletes is raising concerns coming just over a week before the opening ceremony, Reuters reported. Adding to the gloom, Tokyo has just recorded its highest number of new COVID cases in six months. Singapore reported its highest case number in 10 months, after uncovering a cluster among hostesses and customers at Karaoke bars, Reuters reported. Singapore has yet to reopen KTV lounges and clubs and authorities said the places where the virus spread were operating as food and beverage outlets. Meanwhile, the United Nations’ Unicef agency and the World Health Organization said about 23 million children missed out on other basic vaccinations during the pandemic and warned of the potential for outbreaks of diseases including polio, measles and meningitis. “Multiple disease outbreaks would be catastrophic for communities and health systems already battling COVID-19, making it more urgent than ever to invest in childhood vaccination and ensure every child is reached,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. “This is a wake-up call — we cannot allow a legacy of COVID-19 to be the resurgence of measles, polio and other killers,” said Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “We all need to work together to help countries both defeat COVID-19, by ensuring global, equitable access to vaccines, and get routine immunization programs back on track.” Pfizer is making the case for COVID-19 boosters. Health officials say we don’t need a third dose yet. The global tally for the coronavirus-borne illness climbed above 188.5 million on Thursday, while the death toll climbed further above 4.06 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. leads the world with a total of 33.9 million cases and in deaths with 608,135. India is closing in on the U.S. in cases at 30.9 million but is third in deaths at 411,989, while Brazil is second in deaths at 537,394 but is third in cases at 19.2 million. Mexico has the fourth-highest death toll at 235,507 but has recorded just 2.6 million cases, according to its official numbers. In Europe, the U.K. has 128,797 deaths the second highest in Europe after Russia. China, where the virus was first discovered late in 2019, has had 104,157 confirmed cases and 4,848 deaths, according to its official numbers, which are widely held to be massively under-reported.
Delta variant risks WILL spark market correction
The highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 has fast become the dominant strain around the world, spreading beyond Asia. Countries with low vaccination rates like Australia have had no choice but to reimpose draconian lockdowns, but in other places such as America and Britain despite the fact most adults have had at least one vaccine dose, are seeing infection rates skyrocketing and may have to impose lockdowns
The Delta variant that was first detected in India is spreading rampantly everywhere and is threatening to undo more than a year of progress in getting the virus contained. Countries including France, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh have all announced fresh lockdowns in the last couple of weeks and there are fears more cities and regions will fall victim to stay-at-home orders if the Delta strain continues to rage.
Surprising amounts of death will arrive in these us regions
https://youtu.be/-oBOk6-num4
(CNN)When you compare states with high vaccination rates to states that are lagging, the difference in the number of people getting Covid-19 is staggering. Over the past week, states that have fully vaccinated more than half of their residents have reported an average Covid-19 case rate that is about a third of that in states which have fully vaccinated less than half of their residents, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas are the only states to have fully vaccinated fewer than 35% of their residents. Average daily case rates in each state were among the 10 worst in the country last week. Vermont leads the nation with about 66% of its population fully vaccinated — and while case rates there increased compared to last week, the state still had the lowest case rate in the country last week, with an average of less than one new case per 100,000 people each day.
Covid-19 cases rise in US hotspots States that have fully vaccinated more than half of their residents reported an average of 2.8 new Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people each day last week, compared to an average of about 7.8 cases per 100,000 people each day in states that have vaccinated less than half of their residents. “We really need to get more people vaccinated, because that’s the solution,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Monday on “CBS This Morning.” “This virus will, in fact, be protected against by the vaccine.” Across the country, more than 99% of US Covid-19 deaths in June were among unvaccinated people, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Howard Jarvis, an emergency medicine physician in Springfield, Missouri, told CNN on Monday that his sick patients are all unvaccinated. “If they’re sick enough to be admitted to the hospital, they are unvaccinated. That is the absolute common denominator amongst those patients,” he said. “I can see the regret on their face. You know, we ask them, because we want to know, are you vaccinated? And it’s very clear that a lot of them regret (not being vaccinated).” The pace of vaccinations has dropped sharply in recent months. About 246,000 people initiated vaccination each day over the past week, down 88% from the April peak, and about 278,000 people became fully vaccinated each day over the past week, down 84% from the April peak, CDC data shows. About 56.2% of Americans 12 or older are fully vaccinated.
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Delta COVID variant threat to global recovery – Fed’s Daly
A senior Fed official warned Delta coronavirus variant The low vaccination rate in some parts of the world poses a threat to the global recovery because she urges caution to remove monetary support for the US economy. Mary Daley, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said in an interview with the Financial Times: “I think one of the biggest risks to our future global growth is that we announced our victory over Covid too early.” “We are not passing Pandemic, We are getting through the pandemic. “ Daly, who is the voting member Federal Open Market Committee This year, it pointed out the struggle of Japan and other countries to contain the virus. She said that the surge in the number of foreign infections and the lag in vaccination activities are inhibiting the economic rebound and may have a negative impact on the United States. “If the global economy… can’t get it… a higher vaccination rate will really leave Covid behind [us], Then it’s not good for US economic growth,” Daly said. “The good number of vaccinations is great, but look at all the pockets that haven’t happened yet. ” Daly’s warning came as investors sought safe havens in droves this week, pushing up U.S. government bond prices. SoarAs a result, US Treasury bond yields fell sharply, and benchmark 10-year Treasury bond trading prices were at their lowest level since February. Global stock markets fell on Thursday. Many market participants attribute the sharp drop in U.S. Treasury yields to technical factors. But more and more people have expressed concern that the economy will not be able to sustain the hot growth rate that has been accompanied by the reopening so far, and predict that the recent surge in inflation will quickly disappear. “In the United States, the news is very positive, but the global news is not so positive,” Daly said. “It’s always been good, but it’s not great. The market will react to these things, which of course will reduce the rate of return because they put the risk there.” She added: “What you see is that people are becoming more aware of the downside risks facing the global economy.” Federal Reserve June meeting It seems to be a catalyst for recent market trends. Central bank officials predict that they will raise interest rates faster and more aggressively than predicted earlier this year. However, in an interview with the Financial Times, Daley, who is considered one of the more moderate Fed officials, said that there is no doubt that the Fed will stick to the monetary policy framework it adopted in August 2020. Excessive inflation in the pursuit of full employment. “chair [Jay] Powell expressed this so clearly in his press conference that I think this is a highlight that deserves attention,” Daly said. “This is the message I have been saying: we are fully committed to our framework. This means eliminating job shortages and achieving an average inflation rate of 2%, which remains absolutely the most important. “ Daley’s comments were made at a critical moment in the Fed’s decision, as it discussed the cancellation of some of the large-scale monetary support provided for economic recovery at the beginning of the pandemic. The minutes of the June FOMC meeting released on Wednesday showed that some policymakers believe that the Fed may soon begin to reduce the size of its asset purchases by US$120 billion per month. However, although Daley said that the debate around “cutting” is justified, the central bank must “focus on the long-term goals of full employment and price stability, and really have enough patience and perseverance to fulfill these promises. This is our opinion. What the American people did”. In addition, Daley believes that raising interest rates from the current level of close to zero will have to wait until the end of the asset purchase. Other more hawkish Fed officials have hinted that there may be some overlap.
“We are ready to downsize in due course,” she said. “Then I want to see, how? How does the economy react to this? Because we can predict, we can predict, but we need to know to really say, “Oh, well, now is the time to enter the next phase. “This is a small amount of discussion about policy normalization and the upcoming issues of the federal funds rate.”
Daley said that the disagreements among Fed officials on how to quickly remove support for the economy disclosed in the minutes of the meeting are healthy, because officials put forward their “different views” instead of operating in the “echo chamber.” As far as she is concerned, the chairman of the San Francisco Fed stated that she is not ready to enter the post-pandemic environment. “I think there is always a sense of excitement,’oh my goodness: look, the vaccination works, this may be the end’. But it is too early to say that we have won here.”
Pfizer to develop booster jab for COVID Delta variant
- Pfizer and BioNTech announced Thursday they are developing a Covid-19 booster shot intended to target the delta variant.
- Clinical studies could begin as early as August, subject to regulatory approvals.
- Executives from Pfizer and BioNtech have repeatedly said people will likely need a booster shot, or third dose, within 12 months of getting fully vaccinated.
Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE announced that they are in the process of developing a booster shot for their coronavirus vaccine that will specifically target the Delta variant of the virus. The companies noted that they remain certain that a third jab of their existing vaccine would be enough to provide extra protection against the Delta variant, but stated that they are developing an updated version of the vaccine just for that variant in order to “remain vigilant.” Lastly, the pharmaceutical firms said that, following real-world evidence released by Israeli health authorities, vaccine efficacy declines after six months. Therefore, they concluded that, based on the current data, a third dose may be needed “within six to 12 months after full vaccination.”
Wall Street closes in red amid COVID-19 concerns
United States equity markets extended losses on Thursday to close the trading session in the red zone. Most concerns revolved around rising COVID-19 cases globally and the threat of the Delta variant. The Olympics leadership announced that Summer Olympics in Tokyo will be held without spectators following Japan’s declaration of the fourth state of emergency. Meanwhile, US jobless claims rose by 2,000 to 373,000 coming higher than expected and signaling a possible slowdown in the labor market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note dropped to 1.256%, the lowest point since February. The Dow lost 0.75% as the Travelers Companies slid 2.41%, while the S&P 500 closed with 0.86% below the flatline with Kansas City Southern plunging 7.87%. The Nasdaq 100 dropped 0.60% led by CSX Corporation falling 6.16%. The euro gained 0.47% against the dollar to trade for $1.18465 at 4:02 pm ET.