1,017,376.
That is the official count of Covid 19 infections yesterday, almost double the record of 585,013 set on Thursday. That's NOT EVEN inclucing data from 6 states, which took the holiday off on Monday and will catch up reporting today – so tomorrow is likely to be an even more disturbing daily number than today though it's hard to be more disturbing than 1 in 300 of us catching Covid in a single day. There are 365 days in a year – you WILL get your turn! Now we will see if I was right on Wednesday, when I said:
Can the markets keep ignoring this surge in cases? Certainly not if we're talking 1M cases per day next week. Even if Omicron were as mild as the flu – having 7M people per week get sick would be damaging to the economy. At the moment, "THEY" keep pointing out that hospitalizations and deaths are not maching the record highs – but that's because those are LAGGING indicators that FOLLOW the infections. Yes, that's very obvious but, unfortunately, you have to actually say these things out loud to cut through the BS that's pumped out by the Corporate Media.
The "bright side" of Omicron is supposed to be less hospitalizations… Well, as we know, hospitalizations are a lagging indicator and look at Washington DC, which was the first place to get hit hard – hospitalizations are now 200% over their past peak with infections up 500% so yes, less hospitalizations per infection but we are still being ovewhelmed by the total number of infections.
So far, the market is HAPPY about the news as it makes it more likely the stimulus will pass and it makes it less likely the Fed will be hiking any time soon. That means even more inflation – including inflated stock prices – can still be in our future – despite all the death and disease (less people to divide up the winnings with!).
So far, the market is being completely unrealistic – still hoveing around the highs. Mark Zandi, Chief Economist at Moody’s Analytics, downgraded his first-quarter U.S. gross domestic product forecast to 2.2% growth from 5.2%…
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