“After years of wanting to thoroughly clean my house but lacking the time, this week I discovered that wasn’t the reason.”
– Julius Caesar

Friday, May 8th, 2020

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-06/u-s-infections-rise-1-9-below-week-s-average-virus-update?srnd=premium

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-07/new-york-covid-19-deaths-top-20-000-with-climb-slower-than-fall?srnd=premium

The U.S. removes four Patriot missile batteries, two jet fighter squadrons and dozens of military personnel from Saudi Arabia while considering a reduction in the U.S. Navy presence in the Persian Gulf. (The Wall Street Journal)

Justice Department will drop case against Michael Flynn The Justice Department moved Thursday to drop the criminal case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to charges of lying to the FBI, but earlier this year, said he wanted to withdraw his plea because he was pressured into giving it. The DOJ sided with Flynn, deciding to drop his charges “after a considered review of all the facts and circumstances of this case, including newly discovered and disclosed information.” Flynn was fired shortly after it appeared he lied to Vice President Mike Pence and the FBI about the nature of his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak. But recently unsealed documents revealed the FBI may have set out to get Flynn to lie. Source: The Associated Press

 

Oil $23
DJIA 23,800
SP500 2,880

“If you thought toilet paper was crazy … just wait until 300 million people all want a haircut appointment.”
– Shakespeare

Thursday,  May 7th, 2020

https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-arizona-stops-experts-predict-worsening-outbreak-reopen-2020-5

https://www.businessinsider.com/americans-dont-need-masks-pence-says-as-demand-increases-2020-2

The European Southern Observatory announces the discovery of Earth’s closest-known black hole (HR 6819). The invisible object in the QV Telescopii system has a mass at least four times that of our Sun, and is roughly 1,000 light years (10 quadrillion km) from Earth in the constellation Telescopium. (BBC)

The End

There have been 3.5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide with 1.1 million recoveries and 250,000 deaths.

Globally there are about 80,000 new confirmed cases every day. This number peaked at 85,000/day in mid-April, dipped to 75,000/day last week and is on the rise again.

Globally new deaths have fallen to about 5,000 per day. This number peaked at about 7,000/day for two weeks in mid-April and has been slowly declining.

In the United States there have been 1.1 million confirmed cases, 180,000 recoveries and 69,000 deaths. New cases fluctuate at around 25-30,000/day and  new deaths have fluctuated at around 2,000/day for the last month.

Oil trades at $24 a barrel – up from a low of $12 two weeks ago but down from around $60 it traded at before the virus, the price-war, and the OPEC productions cuts.
The Dow Jones is at DJIA 23,664 – 29,500 in mid-February
The S&P500 is 2,848 – 3,386

-CB

 

Wednesday,  May 6th, 2020

Trump defies experts in reportedly thinking coronavirus deaths are overcounted  A senior Trump administration official told Axios he expects President Trump to begin publicly questioning the coronavirus death toll in the United States. Experts mostly agree the data isn’t accurate, but for the opposite reason — the consensus is that deaths are being undercounted, while the official said Trump and some of his aides think the numbers are inflated. There’s no evidence the number of fatalities has been exaggerated. Other officials say Trump doesn’t think the numbers are fraudulent, but that the lack of “uniform reporting standards in the United States” means the data is murky. That may be true, but most experts are concerned about how many coronavirus deaths have been missed due to lack of testing, rather than added unnecessarily. Source: Axios

Trump reverses, says coronavirus task force will ‘continue on indefinitely’  The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the White House was looking to “wind down” the coronavirus task force, and Vice President Mike Pence confirmed that this would potentially happen within weeks, but President Trump seemed to walk this back on Wednesday morning. Trump tweeted that “because of [the group’s] success, the task force will continue on indefinitely,” though with a “focus on SAFETY & OPENING UP OUR COUNTRY AGAIN,” as well as vaccines and therapeutics. An official told Axios that the task force will “continue providing input, though the group will not be meeting in person as regularly as the focus changes toward vaccines, therapeutics, testing, and ultimately reopening the economy.” The official also insisted this “does NOT mean doctors are being removed from the equation.”  Source: Axios

https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-second-and-third-wave-of-pandemic-is-now-likely-2020-5

https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-china-accuses-uk-of-cold-war-mentality-towards-beijing-2020-5