WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is Monday’s status check of developments in the U.S. that can influence economic, health and political outcomes:
- A new week filled with echoes of last week. Weekend rioting, Chicago after midnight looted stores. A police shooting in the afternoon and mistaken rumors about that shooting was the spark. There was no protest. Multiple shooters firing more than 100 rounds killed one person and injured another 19 in Washington D.C.. Portland, Ore., more rocks thrown at police. More than 10 weeks of demonstrations.
- President Trump holds another briefing, again claims the virus “will disappear.” And yes, as he was again blasting mail-in voting and noting U.S. stocks are near if not exceeded record levels, his briefing was interrupted briefly because of a shooting outside the White House gates. The few minutes of confusion and the rest of the briefing were tick tocked on the macenewsmacro twitter feed.
- President Trump repeated, children “don’t get very sick. They don’t catch it easily … and according to the people that I’ve spoken to they don’t transport it to other people or certainly not very easily, so year, I think tsunami of expert opinions on the cable channels that he is wrong, as millions of parents wonder if they should send their students back into school hallways and classrooms. The American Academy of Pediatrics said 97,000 children tested positive in the last two weeks of July. While no medical experts were present at the briefing, the president introduced Scott Atlas, a Hoover Institution fellow who has mocked Democrats for what he has said is their hysteria versus school reopenings.
- Remember on Saturday, the president said Democrats had asked to resume negotiations on the next phase of virus relief legislation. Monday morning he tweeted that again. “Amazing how it all works, isn’t it.” Except, as one of his negotiators, Treasury’s Mnuchin, said it didn’t happen. “I have not spoken to Schumer or Pelosi” since Friday.
- BUT, before we nod off, there were some new bad vibes about China, in the context of a meeting at the end of the week between USTR Lighthizer and his China counterpart, part of the Phase 1 trade deal process of mutual assurances. Except maybe this time maybe not agreement on whether China is fulfilling its end of the deal. So listen what President Trump said in his latest briefing: China being able to claim in the World Trade Organization that it is a developing nation, privy to some special accommodations, “is a very unfair situation. No, we are upset with Chia because of what they did (on the virus). China was not good. … I don’t know what we want to have a deal with China to be honest with you.” Will the Lighthizer meeting be a further ratchet toward even worse relations.”
- Related, HHS Secretary Azar went ahead with being the first member of the Cabinet to visit Taiwan since 1979. Predictably, China expressed its anger and sent its fighter jets to buzz the edge of Taiwan territory. Azar was a curious choice, a health emissary from the country with one of the highest virus death counts in the world, visiting Taiwan, with one of the lowest.
- The U.S. virus death toll reached 162,900 but the weekend count of daily deaths declined to 539, lower by more than half of that of last Friday. There were an average of 53,772 confirmed cases a day in the past week, down 18% from the average two weeks earlier (NYT Tracker). Six states report increasing cases. Another 26 report cases staying about the same.
- Related, China takes a gadfly publisher and his sons into custody in Hong Kong, suspected or colluding with foreigners. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien: “We are deeply troubled by the arrest of Jimmy Lai, a Kong Kong businessman, publisher and prominent pro-democracy advocate. … These arrests are also a clear effort to intimidate pro-democracy and political opposition figures.”
- Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Biden may name his vice president as soon as Tuesday. President Trump in his evening briefing said top prospect Susan Rice was part of an Obama administration that “spied on my campaign.”
- In U.S. stocks the DJIA finished up 1.3% or 357.96. The S&P in contrast was up just 0.27% or 9.18. The Nasdaq was down 0.39% or 42.63. After-hours trading was mildly positive. The dollar index was stable, down just 0.05% and is down 3.2% for the month.
- In upcoming economic data, the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index at 6a ET, July’s Producer Price Index at 8:30a ET and the Redbook same-store retail sales report at 8:55a ET.
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