Worldwide coronavirus cases surpases 10.785M with over 517,000 deaths officially reported.
Safe Haven buying midweek was replaced by optimism with positive news out of the US with a trifecta of economic releases. Manufacturing for June bounced higher than expected from 43.1 to 52.6 as the industry formally entered expansionary territory- given it is back above the 50 breakeven threshold. The rise was the largest rise since August 1980. New manufacturing orders were sharply higher along with production increasing from 33 pts to 57.2. Jobs data surged as US firms added more than 2.37M jobs to the economy in June. This is a turnaround from May’s upwardly revised job losses of -3.065M as companies continue to re employ workers and the economy slowly comes back online. US equity markets rebounded with the Nasdaq hitting a record high of 10197 up 1% as news broke that Covid-19 vaccines by companies BioNTech and Pfizer were making progress. Both companies and their experimental vaccines have generated neutralizing antibodies at a higher rate than other placebo receivers recovering from the coronavirus infection. FDA’s guidelines for vaccine development suggest a long road before a vaccine is widely available.
Key Points…
- US jobs for June accelerated with payrolls rising by 4.8M vs 3.0M predicted
- The New Zealand Dollar closed out the month of June holding the top spot, pushing out the Australian Dollar as the best performing currency
- NZ picked up 2 new coronavirus cases yesterday bringing the number of affected people in quarantine designated facilities nationally to 18 active people – still no community spread YET
- Brexit negotiations kicked off again this week in Brussels, it’s the first time UK’s chief negotiator David Frost and his EU counterpart have met in person some months due to the coronavirus outbreak
- China passes new controversial Hong Kong national security law
- The UK is offering 3 million Hong Kong people UK citizenship, Australia’s PM Morrison is also considering making some sort of offer for Australian citizenship as well
- Tokyo reports 107 new coronavirus cases yesterday
- China has been delivering a subtle range of messages to the US Whitehouse recently saying stay out of matters which don’t concern them (HK), any meddling could jeopardise further purchases of US products including farm goods under the “phase one” trade deal
- Australia’s state of Victoria has 77 new cases in the last day with other states extending border closures for people from Victoria