The COVID-19 pandemic continues to worsen and now stands at 887,067 cases worldwide – a doubling last week’s total. According to data compiled by John Hopkins University, countries with the largest outbreaks are as follows: the United States (190,740 cases), Italy (105,792), Spain (102,136), China (82,361), Germany (74,508), France (52,870), Iran (47,593), and the United Kingdom (29,842). There have now been over 44,264 deaths worldwide.
The situation in the United States continues to deteriorate, with President Trump warning of a ‘painful’ two weeks ahead. The country now accounts for almost twice the confirmed infections of the second-largest outbreak in the world, and White House spokespeople were preparing the public for a potential 100,000-240,000 deaths before the pandemic had run its course. A total of 700 deaths were reported on Tuesday – the highest single day count since the crisis began.
Many now believe a global recession is imminent, and an increasing number are going so far as to invoke the possibility of a depression. Here are some of the significant economic developments from the past week:
- US energy companies were flagged as being at-risk early on in the pandemic, threatened on the supply side by the Russia-Saudi price war and on the demand side by severely curtailed economic activity due to COVID-19 mitigation measures. The first domino has now fallen, and it’s Whiting Petroleum, which officially filed for bankruptcy protection today. Whiting is one of the largest players in the Bakken basin, and had already been cutting back its workforce through 2019. Like many US shale players, it was heavily indebted and unable to refinance in the current credit-constrained environment. Whiting won’t be the last; in fact, according to analyst Paul Sankey from Mizuho Securities, as many as 70% of US drillers could go under in the difficult times to come.
- US markets have taken a negative turn after a string of sweeping gains last week. At time of writing the Dow is down 3.4% and the S&P 500 3.6%. The downturn is being attributed to signaling from the US government that the COVID-19 outbreak will be more severe and long-lasting than had been previously indicated.
