NEW YORK, Jan 6 (Reuters) – Declining world supply chain pressures are being challenged by new disruptions in China tied to the coronavirus pandemic, the New York Federal Reserve reported on Friday. The regional Fed bank’s December Global Supply Chain Pressure Index ticked down to 1.18 from November’s revised 1.23 reading. According to the report, supply chain pressures have been easing notably since the spring of last year and bottomed in September, and have since then been bouncing around in a tight range. In a blog posting accompanying the report, bank economists said “while supply chain disruptions have significantly diminished over the course of 2022, the reversion of the index toward a normal historical range has paused over the past three months,” adding that “our analysis attributes the recent pause largely to the pandemic in China amid an easing of ‘Zero COVID’ policies.” In contrast to much of the rest of the world, until recently China has been pursuing aggressive lockdown strategies to mitigate the spread of the virus. Given China’s large role in manufacturing, that approach has kept pressure on supply chains over recent months. Now, the easing of restrictions has been attended by a massive wave of coronavirus infections, which threaten to keep pressure on the ability to ship goods out of China. NN: we are watching this closely. Our conclusion at the present time is the new dominate variant the XBB 1.5 is contagions as hell.. But not life threatening to health people. Usually symptoms pass within 5 to 10 days. As the infected population skyrockets in China i expect market hysteria. And a incredible reopening in the next few months of the Chinese economy. This could be a great trading opportunity.