Corona Crazy
The markets did get a touch of the risk-off attitude during the Asian and European sessions this morning but it seems that the US markets have no fear.
The official death toll provided by the Chinese government is now at 910, but given some of the footage that's coming in there's plenty reason to be skeptical of these numbers. In general it seems that many Chinese citizens are losing their faith quickly.
After speaking with a good friend of mine over encrypted communication, it seems that people in Shanghai have even less information than we do and many are using a VPN to get onto Western social media channels just to see what's happening. On this side of the firewall however, there's a much greater chance of fake news and no real way of verifying just how much of what we're seeing is real. A real catch 22 situation for anyone trying to gauge the economic impact.
Several factories have reportedly gone back to work today but as far as it seems most of the country is still not moving.
As far as the markets are concerned, investors are being extremely optimistic. Judging by how stocks are acting it seems most people think this will all be over soon and the central banks will be able to cover any production gaps with free money injections.
Most telling is that Gold and the Japanese Yen have not been doing much of anything. If there were real fear, they'd be surging right now. The US Dollar has been gaining lately but it would be quite a stretch to try and chalk that up to the Coronavirus.
