Worldwide coronavirus cases surpass 73.1 million with over 1,626,000 official deaths.
Key Points:
• Europe has announced further coronavirus restrictions in the wake of record-breaking new cases and deaths recently.
• Germany has also been struggling to contain a fresh wave of coronavirus cases advising workplaces to close down as they start a new lockdown phase tomorrow.
• The UK are bracing for tier 3 lockdown restrictions as mounting pressures in parliament mount to prevent christmas closures and further restrictions.
• Progress in the Brexit negotiations remains touch and go with the deadline again being extended by another week as 31 December D day looms.
• US lawmakers have unveiled a 748B stimulus package compromising the original 908B originally. This separates out the sticky points of the deal so that the new amount could be agreed by Congress.
• New Zealand “consumer confidence” jumped Monday to 106 vs 95.4 prior- back at the 2019 average indicator.
• Crude Oil forecasts for first quarter 2021 have been downgraded by OPEC as hard lockdowns take effect.
Major Announcements last week:
- The European Central Bank retained its refinancing rate and boosted its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program by 500B to March 2022
- The Bank of Canada kept their interest rate on hold at 0.25% and opted to leave its QE program in place at current levels.
- US Unemployment claims jumped to 853K far higher than the predicted 723K as the jobs market hits a hurdle.