Covid-19 Daily Dashboard – 24 August 2020
An overview of key economic and financial metrics.
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Download an overview of key economic and financial metrics relating to Covid-19 on 24 August 2020.
COVID-19: The total number of recorded cases globally reached 23.4 million, with 809k reported deaths according to Johns Hopkins University & Medicine. In the UK, daily new confirmed cases remains above 1,000 for the fourth consecutive day, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.
Equities: In Europe, the STOXX 600 is up +1.7%, driven by the CAC 40 (+2.2%) and the DAX (+2.1%), while the FTSE 250 is up 1.0%. In the US, futures for the S&P 500 are also positive (+0.7%). In Asia, the Hang Seng (+1.7%) and the Kospi (+1.1%) were the best performing indexes, followed by the CSI 300 (+0.8%), the S&P / ASX 200 (+0.3%) and the TOPIX (+0.2%).
VIX: While the CBOE market volatility index remained flat at 22.7 so far this morning, the Euro Stoxx 50 volatility price index has increased 1.3% to 24.34, above its long term average of 23.3.
Bonds: The US 10-year treasury yield and the German 10-year bund yield have softened +1bps and +2bps to 0.64% and -0.49% respectively. The UK 10-year gilt yield remained stable so far today at 0.21%.
Currency: Both sterling and the euro remained stable at $1.31 and $1.18. Hedging benefits for US dollar denominated investors into the UK and the eurozone are 0.30% and 1.10% per annum on a five-year basis.
Oil: Brent Crude and the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) are currently $45.25 and $42.66 per barrel.
Baltic Dry: The Baltic Dry index decreased a further -2.4% yesterday to 1,481. However, the index is +36% above where it was in January.
Gold: The price of gold is up 0.4% so far today to $1,940 per troy ounce, which is -6.0% lower than the record high reached earlier this month.
US Election: Predictit, the online political futures market currently indicates a 44% likelihood of President Trump being re-elected in November, unchanged on one week ago but higher than 40% one month ago. The current probability of Joe Biden winning the election is 60%, up from 57% last week but down from 63% one month ago.