[HONG KONG] Asian markets fluctuated in morning trade on Tuesday as investors weighed record gains on Wall Street against fears the resurgent Delta coronavirus variant may put the brakes on the global economic recovery. Major US indices rebounded overnight from a slow start as bargain hunters stepped up purchases – leaving both the Dow and S&P 500 finishing narrowly positive to extend a streak of record high closes for a fifth straight day. Buoyed by those gains on Wall Street, Tokyo opened up 0.5 per cent.
But Mizuho Securities warned that the market will be “weighed down by rising virus cases and geopolitical risks that are pushing the yen higher.”
Markets in China have dragged since a regulatory crackdown on private business by Beijing that has left investors on edge, with Hong Kong fluctuating through the morning session and Shanghai flat. Nick Note: To me the only issue is when the world figures out the covid-19 virus will come back over and over again in waves. And will be in constant mutations. Reality is not enough people are vaccinated and vaccines stop working after 6 months. Which means the pool of vaccinated and vacine protected people keeps shrinking. Its the Covid treadmill to hell. Its a matter of the sophisticated people staying on top of this… by vitamingup, maskingup, vaccinatingup and testingup. These are proven, workable, easy to do and inexpensive strategies. As far as the global economy the waves of infections and lockdowns will drive the economy back into recession. Reality is between the people who refuse vaccines and the ones who believe their is no plague and will not engage in rudimentary protections like masking up and testing their is a sufficient pool of readily infectable hosts to constantly generate mutations. My prediction is like the yearly flu shot their will be a 6 month to 1 year booster shot needed for the covid-19 and its mutations, We will have to modify our life styles and get use to the fact we will need booster shots. Because their are so many infected people who display no symptoms we will have to test everyone who comes into our air space…. Its cheap and easy. As far as the economic ramifications…… Many industries will be forever changed like travel and leisure. We will see constant breakdowns in the supply chain as lockdowns shut down global production in waves. One place that is obvious is the automiblie supply chain. Still plagued by covid shutdown related shortage. Another example is shipping as ports are shut down and so it goes. The markets will eventually price in the fact their is no recovery and the US economy will soon slip into darkness. I believe the next employment report will bear this out….