Covid-19 Daily Dashboard - 2 October 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 2 October 2020.
Quarantine: Visitors from Poland and Turkey will have to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival to the UK. Meanwhile, Australia will open a travel corridor with New Zealand, commencing on 16th October, with visitors not having to quarantine.
Equities: Globally, stocks are lower this morning. In Europe, declines were recorded by the DAX (-1.0%), CAC 40 (-0.7%), FTSE 250 (-0.6%) and the STOXX 600 (-0.5%). In Asia, most exchanges remain closed for national holidays, albeit the S&P / ASX 200 (-1.4%) and the Topix (-1.0%) were both down on close. In the US, futures for the S&P 500 are -1.6%.
VIX: The CBOE market volatility index and the Euro Stoxx 50 vix have increased +11.0% and +5.7% over the morning to 29.6 and 28.0, respectively. Both indices remain elevated compared to their long term averages.
Bonds: The Italian 10-year bond yield has declined -3bps to a record low of 0.75% this morning. The US 10-year treasury yield (-2bps) and the German 10-year bund yield (-1bp) have also compressed over the morning to 0.66% and -0.55%. Meanwhile, the UK 10-year gilt yield is steady at 0.23%.
Currency: Sterling has appreciated to $1.29, while the euro is currently $1.17. Hedging benefits for US dollar denominated investors into the UK and the eurozone are at 0.35% and 1.14% per annum on a five-year basis.
Oil: Brent Crude and the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) are below $40 per barrel and at the lowest price they have been since the beginning of June, after both declining -3.3% to $39.58 and $37.45.
Baltic Dry: The Baltic Dry increased +8.3% yesterday to 1,869, the highest it has been since 7th July. This has largely been driven by capesize rates, which increased +14.4% yesterday.
Gold: The price of gold increased +1% yesterday to $1,906 per troy ounce. The price of gold is currently +25% higher than it was in January, however is down -8% compared to the record of $2,063 reached on 6th August.
US Unemployment: There were 837k new unemployment applications in the week to 26th September, below expectations of 850k and lower than the previous week’s reading of 873k.