WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is Wednesday’s updated status check of developments in the U.S. that can influence economic, health and political outcomes:
- With the VIX calmer (down) another 2% at 24.32 after-hours stock futures late Wednesday showed little movement after the day’s positive session boosting the DJIA +0.62%/+164.44. S&P finished +0.57%/+18.72; Nasdaq +0.24%/+25.76. The DJIA +3.8% for the month, Nasdaq +7.3%. The Tesla cult membership cheered another 1.6% gain (to $1,592.33) after the company reported a fourth straight quarter of profits, reinforcing the dream, and as it announced a new $1 billion assembly plant for Austin.
- Also, more frequent mentions of dollar’s trend (-5.34%/3 mos;-2.13% 1 mos) and the sub 6% yield (0.597%) for the U.S. 10-year note which is persistently dissenting from stocks indices narrowly driven higher.
- On the virus front, another solo briefing by President Trump who again said the immune system of children is strong enough to allow them to be back inside schools where he would be “comfortable” placing his grandchildren. But the news came afterward in a Fox interview with the Corona Virus Task Force’s Dr. Birx who conceded the virus spikes in Louisiana/Alabama and elsewhere have outstripped testing capacity. She is asking low intensity states In the Northeast to pool testing so to increase testing capacity for the South. A study underway to see if children really do transmit the virus less, as indicated in a SKorea study. In-school reopenings seem to be fading.
- Earlier at the White House, Trump presided over a law and order event in which he said militarized federal police are being sent to Chicago. Unlike in Portland, they will be welcomed by Chicago’s mayor who reversed her position overnight to say they will be integrated with city policy to stem gun violence. Trump said he is waiting for more cities to ask for help.
- On the campaign trail, Trump unveiled some more advertising trying to paint Biden as the frontrunner for the looting and arson party, while Biden’s spokespeople see the White House dispatching storm troopers into Democratic-led urban areas. Adding to the nastiness quotient, NBC reported pro-Kremlin Ukrainians claim to have sent unspecified materials on the Bidens to Republicans in the Senate. Biden said Trump the is first “racist” president with his people later conceding there were others.
- On China, markets seemed to have a hard time gauging how serious is the ordered shutdown of that country’s Houston consulate despite the drama of staff there burning documents in the courtyard. The most vocal voice of China, Global Times editor Hu Xijin, who tweeted the first word of the closing, later followed up by saying China might retaliate in a way intended to cause pain, not just targeting the already deserted U.S. consulate in Wuhan. State’s Pompeo added some more demonization rhetoric during the day but the markets’ assumption seemed to be that nothing catastrophic can happen before the results of the U.S. presidential election. Meanwhile the FBI says a biology researcher being questioned about links to China has taken refuge in that country’s San Francisco consulate.
- Congress’s third day back in town and some discernible progress toward another virus response package but only among congressional Republicans and the White House. The big arm wrestling, with the Democratic House, has yet to begin.
- Total U.S. virus deaths 142,904 (NYT tracker). Twenty-one states and D.C. have mandated masks. Sixteen states keep getting worse. The virus is decreasing in only three states. This week was the first since May in which deaths topped 1,000 a day. NIH’s Fauci has been cleared to testify to a House subcommittee next week.
- Upcoming data: Thursday’s latest weekly initial jobless benefit claims at 8:30a ET. Leading indicators at 10a. Wednesday’s NAR report of a record 21% jump in closings, first increase in four months, still doesn’t restore the level to anywhere near normal.
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