Covid-19 Cases 29/2/20 World 85,206 Deaths 2,923 (Maybe.)
Covid-19 Cases 07/3/20 World 102,350 Deaths 3,497 (Maybe.)
Covid-19 cases 14/3/20 World 149,615 Deaths 5,605 (Maybe.)
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king's horses and all the king's
men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
In Harry Potter land, assisted stocks rebounded
from Thursday’s rout. Not that there was any real good news, just that
politicians and central banksters promised aid to some of the crushed stocks. Mostly
in the mistaken belief that as goes stocks so goes prosperity, employment,
and votes.
But with a SARS-Covid-2 pandemic wreaking the
global havoc and economic damage, that mistaken belief simply isn’t true.
Massive unemployment now looms over many major sectors of the global
economy.
A shaken public is not about to flood onto cruise lines, airplanes, into hotels, bars, closed down sporting events,no matter how high central banksters try to push stocks.
Bailing out hedge funds might end the
immediate stock panic, but the virus damage to the real economy is just starting.
A massive sell opportunity.
Helicopter money and social unrest comes
next.
As coronavirus chaos spreads globally, Trump declares U.S. emergency
March 13, 2020 / 3:18 AM
WASHINGTON/GENEVA (Reuters) - President
Donald Trump declared a U.S. national emergency over the quickly spreading
coronavirus on Friday, opening the door to more government aid to combat a
pathogen that has infected more than 138,000 people worldwide and left over
5,000 dead.
The impact of the coronavirus on everyday life deepened around the world. It was detected for the first time in several countries, with the World Health Organization (WHO) calling Europe the pandemic’s current epicentre. More schools and businesses closed, the global sporting calendar was left in tatters, and people faced greater restrictions on where they could go.
“To unleash the full power of the federal government to this effort today, I am officially declaring a national emergency - two very big words,” Trump said in remarks at the White House Rose Garden, adding that the U.S. situation could worsen and “the next eight weeks are critical.”
Trump, whose action makes available $50 billion (£40.76 billion) in federal aid to states and localities, had faced criticism from some experts for being slow and ineffective in his response to the crisis and playing down the threat.
The latest steps came two days after Trump announced travel restrictions blocking U.S. entry for most people from continental Europe. While Britain was among the countries exempted, Trump said on Friday that might change because infections there had risen “precipitously.”
---- Travel bans have hammered airlines and travel companies worldwide, while financial markets have been hit by panic selling this week.
The three major U.S. stock indexes rallied more than 9% on Friday, rebounding from Wall Street’s biggest daily drop since 1987. But the indexes were still about 20% below record highs hit in mid-February.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Europe now had more reported cases and deaths than the rest of world combined, apart from China, where the coronavirus originated but where new cases have slowed to a trickle. The WHO called the death toll reaching 5,000 globally “a tragic milestone.”
More
Below, sadly, the ugly reality in the real world, far from the Harry Potter world of our central banksters, bent politicians, and stock market gamblers.
Italy's coronavirus deaths surge as Lombardy seeks tougher curbs
March 13, 2020 / 3:37 PM
ROME (Reuters) - The death toll from
coronavirus in Italy has jumped by 250 in the last 24 hours, the biggest daily
increase ever recorded by any country, as the worst-affected Lombardy region
asked for a complete shutdown of factories and offices.
The
government this week imposed drastic curbs nationwide, shutting bars,
restaurants and most shops, and banning non-essential travel in an effort to
halt the worst outbreak of the disease outside China.
The measures so far show no sign of slowing the number of deaths, which rose by 25% in a day to 1,266, the head of the Civil Protection Agency said on Friday.
The total number of cases rose to 17,660 from 15,113 the day before, an increase of some 17%.
Lombardy’s health chief Giulio Gallera said the government’s restrictions were not enough for the region which surrounds the financial capital Milan and accounts for three quarters of all the country’s fatalities.
“We are asking for an exception to be made for Lombardy,” he told RAI 3 television, calling for the closure of factories, offices and public transport in the region. “If we can resist for at least eight days, maybe we will see things turn around.”
---- Some companies, such as car maker Fiat Chrysler, have decided to shut down part of their operations, while premium brakes maker Brembo announced on Friday it would temporarily stop work at all its four Italian plants.
---- Italy’s fatality rate, at 7% of all those who test positive from the highly contagious virus, is much higher than that of most other countries.
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U.S. military to halt domestic travel due to coronavirus
March 14, 2020 / 4:16 AM
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Friday it will halt, with some
exceptions, domestic travel for service members, Defense Department civilians
and families in a move aimed at limiting the spread of coronavirus and its
impact on the military.
The move, which goes further than previous restrictions on international travel, highlights the degree to which the U.S. military is concerned and the lengths it has to go to try and protect the more than a million active-duty troops around the world.
The policy would go into effect on Monday through May 11 and would be for service members, Defense Department civilian personnel and their families “assigned to DoD installations, facilities, and surrounding areas in the United States and its territories,” the memo said.
“This restriction will halt all domestic travel,” a Pentagon statement accompanying the memo said.
Exceptions could be granted for mission essential travel, travel necessary for humanitarian reasons, and travel warranted due to extreme hardship, it said.
The impact of the coronavirus on everyday life has deepened around the world. It was detected for the first time in several countries, with the World Health Organization (WHO) calling Europe the pandemic’s current epicenter.
More schools and businesses closed, the global sporting calendar was left in tatters, and people faced greater restrictions on where they could go.
More
Coronavirus: Foreign Office advises against travel to parts of Spain
Madrid has seen a 50% surge in cases in 24 hours and schools, restaurants and sports centres are all closed.
Friday 13 March 2020 13:28, UK
The Foreign
Office has advised against all but essential travel to certain regions in
Spain.
The
restricted areas are Madrid, La Rioja and the municipalities of La Bastida,
Vitoria and Miranda de Ebro.
It comes after an almost 50% increase of coronavirus cases in just 24 hours. The total for Madrid and the surrounding region is 2,000.
Authorities have closed all schools, nurseries, universities, sports centres, theatres and day care centres for the elderly until further notice.
National museums such as El Prado and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía have been closed and festivals and sporting events cancelled.
Spanish newspaper El Mundo wrote that bars, restaurants and shops would close, while El Independiente said this would not apply to supermarkets and pharmacies.
The government announced it would pool intensive care units and consider offers by hotel chains to transform rooms into sick wards.
Spain is now the second hardest hit European country next to Italy with 91 reported deaths. Some 56 are in Madrid.
Spanish media reported that the government is to declare a state of alert over the outbreak.
The number of cases in Spain has jumped to 4,000, La Vanguardia newspaper said, up by about a 1,000 from Thursday and five times as much as on Sunday.
It has been reported that the surge in cases could be due to an International Women's Day march which was attended by thousands of people on Sunday.
More
BA to ground aircraft, cut staff to tackle unprecedented crisis - memo
March 13, 2020 / 1:28 PM
LONDON (Reuters) - British Airways will ground aircraft
like never before and lay off staff due to coronavirus in a battle by the
company to tackle what its chief executive called the most serious crisis in
aviation history. “It is a crisis of global proportions like no other we have known,” BA CEO Alex Cruz told staff in a global message seen by Reuters. BA is owned by IAG (ICAG.L).
“Please do not underestimate the seriousness of this for our company,” he added.
Cruz told staff in the message that jobs would be lost “perhaps for a short period, perhaps longer term” and that the company was in discussions with trade unions. Aircraft would be grounded in a way that the airline has never had to do before, he added.
Coronavirus: F1 season set to be suspended until May with Bahrain and Vietnam races called off
By Dan Roan BBC sports editor 13 March, 2020
The Formula
1 season is set to be suspended until May because of concerns over the
coronavirus pandemic, meaning the Bahrain and Vietnam Grands Prix will not go
ahead as scheduled.
The Bahrain Grand Prix was due to be held behind closed doors on 22 March but is set to be called off completely.
The Vietnam Grand Prix on 5 April is also not expected to go ahead.
The Australian and Chinese Grands Prix were already cancelled, with the Dutch Grand Prix scheduled for 3 May.
----The Vietnam Grand Prix is now expected to follow after the government in Hanoi banned travel into the country for anyone who has been in Italy - among other locations - in the previous 14 days.
The Chinese Grand Prix, scheduled to be the fourth race, was postponed in February after government officials said it could not go ahead.
MLB ceases operations, NBA season suspended, no March Madness: Sporting events are being canceled or will be held in empty arenas amid coronavirus concerns
Published: March 13, 2020 at 11:18 a.m. ET
Few games go on, but where and in front of how many?
Major League
Baseball on Thursday ceased all operations, including spring training, and
delayed its season at least two weeks, shortly after the NHL hit pause on its
season. The NBA suspended its season following Wednesday’s games after a member
of the Utah Jazz tested positive for the coronavirus.
The latest Thursday: The NCAA called off its men’s and women’s annual March Madness tournaments after initially ruling they would be played before no fans. Earlier, 14 conference basketball tournaments -- including the SEC, ACC, Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, and American Athletic Conference -- were canceled.
Major League Soccer suspended its season Thursday and the ATP men’s tennis tour went on hiatus for at least six weeks. The Premier League has been suspended until at least April 3. And the Boston Marathon has been delayed until Sept. 14.
PGA Tour events are on hold. The first major, The Masters (April 9-12), has been postponed to an undetermined date.
NASCAR will hold its next two events without spectators.
Cancellation of professional and college sports seemed inevitable as COVID-19 spread rapidly across North America, and the disease was designated a pandemic this week. For fans of the NHL’s San Jose Sharks, at least three home games were lost after Santa Clara County, Calif., late Monday announced a ban of all large gatherings of at least 1,000 people for the rest of March because of the coronavirus outbreak. The NCAA women’s basketball tournament at Stanford University and one MLS game (San Jose Earthquakes) are also in doubt.
In San Francisco, the NBA’s Golden State Warriors announced early Wednesday they would play Thursday night’s home game against the Brooklyn Nets in an empty Chase Center after city officials banned gatherings of 1,000 for at least two weeks. The San Francisco Giants canceled their March 24 exhibition game vs. the Oakland A’s at Oracle Park.
Baseball’s Seattle Mariners said they will move home games at Safeco Field in March after the state of Washington’s decision to ban large group events. The Mariners were to open the MLB season vs. Texas from March 26-29, and Minnesota, March 30-April 1.
Late Tuesday, the MAC announced its postseason men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in Cleveland will continue as scheduled but will be closed to the general public.
More
WeWork confirms Coronavirus case in London office
The office sharing provider's 145 City Road office remained opened today
By Bérengère Sim
March 12, 2020 3:39 pm GMT
March 12, 2020 3:39 pm GMT
An employee at one of WeWork’s Shoreditch locations has tested positive for coronavirus, Financial News can reveal. This marks the first reported case at the flexible office provider, which is one of London's largest private tenants.
The infected individual, who was last present in the office at 145 City Road on 5 March, was sent home for self-isolation on 10 March.
In the email sent by WeWork’s community team on 12 March to its members, seen by Financial News, the company said that it had arranged for a “deep clean” of the member's office and the entire floor overnight on 11 March. The office has since reopened.
WeWork has also cleaned all shared and communal areas in the building, which remained open today “in line with the guidance from Public Health England”.
“As a company, we continue to monitor the situation closely and follow the government and health authorities’ instructions to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus,” the email from WeWork says.
“If you or anyone in your organisation has a confirmed case of coronavirus, or has come in direct contact with an individual who has a confirmed case of coronavirus, please email your community team immediately,” it adds.
On 11 March, WeWork temporarily closed two floors of one of its buildings in New York City after an employee tested positive for Covid-19, according to reports in the US press.
A person familiar with the matter told Financial News that WeWork has ramped up cleaning efforts across all its offices since January. According to the company’s website, it has 49 offices in London.
More
Coronavirus: Cafe and bar jobs 'gone by May' if laws do not change - trade body
14 March
2020.
Hotel, cafe
and dining chains will fail and jobs will go if the government does not do more
to help the industry, a trade group has warned the chancellor.
In a letter
to Rishi Sunak, lobby group UK Hospitality said coronavirus was an
"existential threat" to the sector.
It wants to change laws to allow temporary staff redundancies.
UK Hospitality boss Kate Nicholls said, without help, "a significant number" of jobs could disappear by May.
In the letter, seen by the BBC, Ms Nicholls suggested broader support for the sector such as introducing measures "to permit temporary staff redundancies where demand falls substantially - with Universal Credit covering wage costs".
Other government policies UK Hospitality would like to see include a business rates holiday for all businesses regardless of size, all payments to HMRC suspended for three months and Government Statutory Sick Pay payments to all hospitality businesses.
Ms Nicholls told the BBC that even some of the largest hotel chains, pub chains and casual dining brands all "run the risk of not existing going forward", such is the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
"This is business-critical - these are cash businesses, put simply, if you don't have people coming through the door, you will run out of cash very quickly.
"So we are talking about intervention that is needed next week to make sure that in six to eight weeks these businesses continue to trade, and if we don't get that support, by May, we will be facing business failures and a significant number of jobs at risk."
"This is affecting hospitality companies of all sizes and shapes...it's high street businesses that are seeing footfall decline, so your pubs, bars, your cafes where you pop in for a sandwich, but also it's the larger companies across the sector - they are the firms that employing the most people," she added.
More
Finally, some better news on the coronavirus, and some not so good coronavirus news.
Finally, Some Good News: Warm Weather Shown to Slow Coronavirus Spread
by Foster Kamer 13 March 2020
In a moment when the world seems more desperate than ever
for the slightest ray of hope, here’s some (literally) sunny news:Warm weather has been correlated with a slowdown in the spread of COVID-19.
The paper comes from a squad of data scientists and economists at Beijing schools Tsinghua University and Beihang University, using data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, related to 4,711 confirmed cases of the SARS-CoV-
The scientists looked to see what those cases’ contact was like with other patients. Then — using a great deal of sophisticated statistical analysis and modeling, trend growth curves, weather stations, and contact tracing among patients who have had COVID-19 — they came to this conclusion:
“High temperature and high relative humidity significantly reduce the transmission of COVID-19, respectively, even after controlling for population density and GDP per capita of cities. […] This result is consistent with the fact that the high temperature and high humidity significantly reduce the transmission of influenza. It indicates that the arrival of summer and rainy season in the northern hemisphere can effectively reduce the transmission of the COVID-19.”
It’s important to note here that, first, the word is “indicates.” This is a data analysis and by no means a definitive piece of work. Next: We’re not talking about warm weather killing coronavirus (per the currently available information we have: it doesn’t). Or stopping it from spreading (it won’t).
But, and finally: It appears it will slow the spread.
While this might sound like little consolation, it should be. You’re going to hear a lot in the next few weeks about “flattening the curve.” Long story short: We need to slow this thing down to make sure that the highest possible number of us will get medical treatment if we need it. Slowing the spread (or “flattening the curve”) is critical to ensuring that various global health care systems aren’t overburdened by a taxing surge of serious to critical cases of COVID-19.
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After the Coronavirus, Some Patients Face Ongoing Lung Damage
After scanning the patients' lungs, doctors
saw signs of organ damage.
by Dan Robitzski 13 March 2020
While most patients who caught COVID-19 ended up making a full recovery, some are dealing with long-term effects of the coronavirus.
In an analysis of 12 patients who recovered from the SARS-CoV-
“They gasp if they walk a bit more quickly,” Owen Tsang, medical director of the HKHA’s Infectious Disease Center, said in a press conference. “Some patients might have around a drop of 20 to 30 percent in lung function.”
After scanning the patients’ lungs, doctors saw signs of organ damage.
That’s far too small a sample size to declare that COVID-19 necessarily causes long-term damage, but it could be a warning sign that doctors should keep an eye out for potential complications.
It’s not yet clear how applicable these results are to the outbreak at large or most other patients hit by the disease.
But even on its own, it’s a troubling sign that more severe cases of COVID-19 could lead to more medical problems in the long run, even after patients have kicked the virus itself.
This weekend’s musical diversion. Bach rearranged Vivaldi’s violin concerto for the keyboard.
Bach: Concerto for 4 pianos BWV 1065 III. Allegro (D. Fray, J. Rouvier, E. Christien, A. Vigoureux)
“When I used to
read fairy tales, I fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I
am in the middle of one!”
President Trump, with apologies to Lewis Carroll and Alice.
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished February
DJIA: 25,409
-75 Down. NASDAQ: 8,567 +171 Up. SP500: 2,954 +133 Up.
A mixed bag. But given the severity of the still growing coronavirus crisis, I wouldn’t follow technical signals in what I think will turn into the first depression since the 1930s. Barring a miracle recovery in all three markets, the monthly Coppock indicators are heading for a reversal.
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