Category: zerohedge

The Mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma declared a civil emergency on Thursday and announced a curfew affecting a six-block radius around the BOK Center, where President Trump will hold his first reelection rally since the start of the coronavirus pandemic on Saturday.

Citing “civil unrest” resulting in “multiple unlawful assemblies and multiple incidents of violence and property damage,” Mayor G.T. Bynum made the announcement amid threats from ‘individuals and organized groups.’

“I have received information from the Tulsa Police Department and other law enforcement agencies that shows that individuals from organized groups who have been involved in destructive and violent behavior in other States are planning to travel to the city of Tulsa for purposes of causing unrest in and around the rally,” Bynum wrote in the executive order, according to Fox News.

🚨CURFEW IN EFFECT FOR DOWNTOWN🚨

As part of our preparations for President Trump’s Rally this Saturday, we are working on making the area secure for everyone’s safety.

As posted earlier, the area illustrated in this map will need to be free of vehicles and pedestrian traffic. pic.twitter.com/uT76N0IWRc

— Tulsa Police (@TulsaPolice) June 19, 2020

President Trump warned “protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes” that the will “not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis.”

Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2020

Meanwhile, BOK Center officials have asked the Trump campaign for a written plan detailing measures to incorporate “health and safety” steps ad social distancing – with health officials expressing concern over the potential for the rally to accelerate the spread of coronavirus in the city – citing an uptick in cases.

According to the report, the Trump campaign will give masks and hand sanitizer to each attendee, as well as conduct temperature checks at the door. GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, however, says that she believes the masks will be optional and that there doesn’t appear to be a social distancing plan.

The rally – for which Trump supporters began lining up outside the venue since Monday – was moved from Friday, June 19 to Saturday due to the Juneteenth holiday commemorating slaves freed in Texas following the Confederacy’s final surrender to the Union Army.

“So you are prepared to sit out here for five-six days?” asked a local KFOR reporter to a group of Trump supporters camped out ahead of the event.

“We’re hill till after the rally,” one woman replied.

#Trump supporters already camped out for #Saturday campaign rally @jaygraymatters live coverage tomorrow pic.twitter.com/lZG5v5wKoq

— joellen ruvoli (@llcooljr) June 18, 2020

It is unclear if the curfew will apply to those camped out.

According to the Trump campaign, more than 1,000,000 people have registered online for the first-come-first-serve rally, which has a capacity of just under 20,000. Those supporters were required to sign a waiver releasing the Trump campaign from responsibility for possible exposure to the coronavirus.

“Looking at a 2nd event in town to get more people to be w/@realDonaldTrump,” Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale tweeted as the number of people registered surpassed 200,000. “Gonna be GREAT in the most open state in the nation!” –Fox News

Meanwhile, where’s Joe Biden?

Sleepy Joe “rally.” 😂 He can’t even fill 10 seats!

This is why they don’t want President @realDonaldTrump at the BOK Center tomorrow with over 1 MILLION ticket requests!!! #MAGA pic.twitter.com/jSLozJmWKD

— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) June 19, 2020

 

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the polarising director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, slammed everyday Americans for refusing to go along with ‘authority’ on medical matters, and accused people of ‘amazing denial’ when it comes to ‘truth’.

Speaking on a podcast called Learning Curve, produced by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Fauci charged that “unfortunately, there is a combination of an anti-science bias that people are — for reasons that sometimes are, you know, inconceivable and not understandable — they just don’t believe science and they don’t believe authority.”

“So when they see someone up in the White House, which has an air of authority to it, who’s talking about science, that there are some people who just don’t believe that — and that’s unfortunate because, you know, science is truth,” Fauci asserted.

“It’s amazing sometimes the denial there is, it’s the same thing that gets people who are anti-vaxxers, who don’t want people to get vaccinated, even though the data clearly indicate the safety of vaccines,” Fauci proclaimed, adding “That’s really a problem.”

Perhaps the real reason Americans don’t trust Fauci is that he’s consistently flip flopped and contradicted himself on ‘the truth’ for months.

The man also exudes authoritarianism, and clearly has a problem with anyone who questions his superiority.

Fauci also has a long history of being the front man for a network of powerful Big Pharma and Big Medicine interests, pushing vaccines and medicines in a clear conflict of interest.

*  *  *

Following Fauci’s blame-scaping the anti-science bias of (implicitly ignorant) Americans, Thiel Capital MD Eric Weinstein unleashed a barrage of uncomfortable truths on Twitter

How dare this man.

Do you want to know why they are learning to hate scientists for real Dr Fauci?

Because your group lies about science & your ilk drove the truth telling scientists out of their rightful places inside the instutions calling bullshit on your lying about masks. pic.twitter.com/VJLTGT0GOe

— Eric Weinstein (@EricRWeinstein) June 18, 2020

Scientists like me who don’t go along with cowards & crowds cannot disrupt your group’s lies because we are outside. Imagine if I was tweeting from the National Science Foundation or MIT. It would be a national news story about how your cabal lies and degrades faith in science: https://t.co/leYsCerG3o

— Eric Weinstein (@EricRWeinstein) June 18, 2020

Weinstein went on:

“But you prattle on. We will one day find out later that you suspected all along that the Wuhan BS-L 4 virology lab might well be involved, but that you didn’t say so for this or that political reason.

Because you aren’t a scientist. You play one. You are an MD turned actor.

ven when I agree with the conclusions of your instutional pseudo science cabal, you cheat to get to our shared conclusions on vaccines, viruses, climate, etc.

So you want people to believe in science again? Ok. Call-yourself-out. Admit that your crowd **lied** about our masks.

And not to put too fine a point on it: your group is sitting in chairs reserved for people who don’t do what your cabal just did.

You just don’t have what it takes sir. I’m sorry. But science isn’t acting. It’s not a beauty pagent. It’s not politics.

Science requires courage.”

 

In a mirror-image move of May’s WTI collapse, S&P 500 futures had a ‘WTF’ moment this morning as the June contract expired.

In the final 5 seconds of trading ahead of the expiry of the June futures contract, the S&P exploded over 30 points higher (from around 3160 to close at 3196) on notable volume…

…as we suspect some options market-maker’s algo went wild in its last ditch effort to minimize pin-pain.

This was absolutely not evident in any other contracts…

This massively decoupled from the June contract, and since June’s expiration, September futures have done nothing but fade…

But yeah, the markets are efficient etc. blah blah blah…

While retail traders  -and now, hedge funds – both rushing into stocks…

… one group of investors remains stubbornly out of the market: we are talking about large institutions, including risk-parity funds…

… and CTAs. Confirming this muted sentiment, Nomura’s Masanari Takada writes overnight that “factor trends in US and DM equities indicate that risk appetite is more muted now than it was in early June” or as he puts it “to some extent, investors appear to have gone back to selling value, buying momentum, and buying low-vol.”

As a result, if the “momentum into value rotation” trade is once again abandoned, and one look at the long term chart suggests this is the most likely outcome…

… should investor sentiment continue to straddle the line between bullishness and bearishness, and “if good and bad news continues to net out in the way it has been, with little change in external circumstances”, investors will probably proceed to sell value and buy momentum as a matter of course, according to Nomura which warns that “by falling back into familiar “pattern ruts”, these trends would give the surface appearance of a market becoming progressively more risk-off.”

Perhaps as a result of the recent mangling of momentum trades which suffered dramatic losses in the past two weeks, one big missing link that could enable a substantial risk off episide, is the abovementioned absence of the trend-following investor class such as CTAs.

But why CTAs aren’t buying more equity futures? According to Takada the answer is simple: 10yr UST yield staying consistently low.

As the Nomura quant explains, “we are not seeing any significant shifts in supply and demand among speculative investors. It is difficult to predict how fundamentals-focused investors exercising discretionary judgment might act, but programmatic traders like CTAs and risk-parity funds appear to be idling their way into asset reallocation (selling bonds and buying stocks).”

And while systematic traders may be on their way to turning properly bullish (as recent observations from Charlie McElligott have hinted), this flow could still end up becoming stuck in the aforementioned “pattern rut” if the incoming good news turns out to be lacking.

So to answer the headline question, whether the market breaks out of its present indecision and allows the resumption of an algorithm-led risk rally, will depends on whether the 10yr UST yield heads up to above 0.84% rather than heading down to below 0.54% (and to a lesser extent whether the VIX falls to below 20.)

The failure of the 10yr UST yield to break back above 0.84% is putting a damper on the buying of equities by systematic funds in general and CTAs in particular. As Nomura points out, CTAs are only at an early stage of accumulating long positions in US equity futures, and “since their net long positions are not especially large yet, there is still quite a bit of leeway for more net buying.”

For now, however, CTA net buying of US equity futures has not managed to break out of the well-trodden median pattern followed during past periods of accumulation, with the line-apparently leveling off now. The “pattern rut” story seems to apply here as well, according to Takeda.

Digging deeper, from a technical angle, the lack of momentum behind CTAs’ net buying of equity futures can be attributed to what looks like a pause in CTAs’ asset reallocation involving exits from long positions in bond futures, especially 10yr UST futures (TY). In other words, CTAs are past the peak in their accumulation of long TY positions.

So what happens next?

According to Nomura, if the 10yr UST yield climbs back towards 0.84% (rather than heading down to the 0.54% recorded on 9 March), CTAs might well accelerate their selling of UST futures and buying of US equity futures (they are, after all, purely momentum traders).  However, global macro hedge funds are currently turning bullish on USTs, and there has been no collapse in risk-parity funds’ exposure to bonds, either. The UST market is looking deadlocked as a result.

There is a labor strike brewing at the New York Police Department, where officers are reportedly being encouraged to call out sick on July 4th in order to give the city its “independence”. 

The move comes after weeks of police officers around the United States facing unprecedented backlash as a result of the death of George Floyd. So far, officers in Buffalo and Atlanta have both been reported to have resigned and/or called out en masse and now it looks like the New York Police Department could be next.

Flyers are being passed around that suggest the strike in response to proposed police reform and an “anti-cop” climate that many officers believe make it more difficult to do their jobs. 

A text message that is going around between NYPD officers says “NYPD cops will strike on July 4th to let the city have their independence without cops,” according to the NY Post. 

“Cops that say we can’t strike because of the Taylor Law, the people and this city doesn’t [sic] honor us why honor them [sic],” the message reads. The origin of the messages are unclear. 

“Police officers like you and me took an oath to protect strangers regardless of race, class or gender. Today we are vilified and must stand as one,” it continues. 

Another such message uses the hashtag #Bluflu and tells officers to call out sick July 4. It says if they are denied the sick day by their precinct, to call the main NYPD sick desk or to ask for an ambulance. 

“If you are held because of the #Bluflu, request a bus and go sick from command,” the message says. 

PBA President Patrick Lynch said: “The situation we are in right now is no joke. NYC cops have reached the breaking point. Over the past few weeks, we have been attacked in the streets, demonized in the media and denigrated by practically every politician in this city. Now we are facing the possibility of being arrested any time we go out to do our job.”

Submitted by Michael Every of Rabobank

Rather than discuss Chinese tanks exercising near the Indian border, or Iranian missiles, or the ‘You lied/No, you lied’ details of Bolton’s book, or the latest US virus numbers, or the relatively inconsequential ebb and flow of markets over the last 24 hours –and perhaps just because it’s a sunny June Friday– I would rather address the long-running Brexit issue for once.

There has been some good news on that front this week, it would seem, with blinking perhaps being done. Or perhaps not. We shall soon see. Regardless, let’s look at the issue in song. Apologies to Bob Dylan (and commiserations to those who don’t know the original, classic Tangled Up in Blue).

Tangled Up in EU

Early one mornin’ Mr BoJo risin’; with Von der Leyen’s in charge instead

Wondrin’ if the EU’d changed at all; If it’s budget was still in the red

Folks they said their lives together; Sure was gonna be rough

They never did like; Junker’s policies; Their offer wasn’t big enough

And BoJo was standin’ on the side of the union; Rain fallin’ on his shoes

Heading out for the US east coast; Lord knows he’d paid no dues

Gettin’ through; Tangled up in EU

EU wasn’t a marriage when they first met; It was all free trade, of course

UK liked the better-quality jam, I guess; And they liked his military force

They drove that car as far as they could; Abandoned it out west

Split up on a dark sad night; Not agreeing it was best

EU turned around to look at him; As he was walkin’ away

Heard them say over his shoulder; We’ll meet again some day

On the free trade avenue; Tangled up in EU

BoJo never had no job in the no powerhouse; Worked as a journo for a spell

But he never did like it all that much; And one day the axe just fell

So he drifted down to Westminster; Where he was looking for to be employed

Workin’ on thoughts of fishin’ boats; and fishin’ rights to be enjoyed

But all the while he was alone; The past was close behind

He saw a lot of trade deals come and go; But the EU never ‘scaped his mind

And he just grew; Tangled up in EU

EU was workin’ on a tariff-free place; The UK stopped in to cheer

Brits kept lookin’ at the sovereignty stuff; In the spotlight all so clear

And later on as the crowd thicked out; Brits didn’t want to do the same

EU was standing there in back of their chair; Sayin’, ‘Don’t you wanna Remain’?

BoJo muttered somethin’ under his breath; EU studied the lines on his face

He must admit he felt a little uneasy; he’d be in a bad, hard place

With no lorries getting through; Tangled up in EU

EU threw some more QE on the stove; But offered no FTA

I thought you’d never leave, she said; Though you aren’t the type to stay

Then she opened up a book of accounts; And handed it to see

Written by an Italian banker; From the present century

And very few of them digits rang true; Or glowed like burnin’ coal

Pourin’ off of every page; Like it was written in his soul

So BoJo said ‘Boo!’…to being; Tangled up in EU

He lived with them in Downing Street; In a basement down the stairs

There was music in the cafés at night; And revolution in the air

Then he started into dealing with others’ free trade; As something inside of EU died

EU wanted him to change everything he owned; and keep the ECJ inside

And when finally the bottom fell out; BoJo became withdrawn

The only thing he knew how to do; Was to keep on keepin’ on

Like a bird that flew; Tangled up in EU

So now he’s not goin’ back again; He got to get to somewhere somehow

All the people he used to know; They’re an illusion to him now

Some are Oxford mathematicians; Some are carpenters’ wives

Don’t know how it all got started; Don’t know what they’re doin’ with their lives

But, well, the UK’s still on the road; Headin’ for another joint

We never really felt the same; Always saw it from a different point of view

Tangled up in EU

Today in “the government is an awful capital allocator” news, trillions of dollars in stimulus money has apparently been doled out with little to no oversight. At the same time, politicians on both sides of the aisle are scrambling to establish order in the form of various oversight panels and inspectors general, according to Bloomberg.

In fact, it was found that some of the oversight bodies responsible for tracking the money are “barely functional”. This comes after $2 trillion in stimulus cash has been doled out. Many, including Peter Schiff, predicted months ago that printing and distributing such a vast amount of money would inevitably lead to fraud and misuse due to the government’s inability to track the money.

Now that’s exactly what’s taking place. Meanwhile, a special inspector general, Brian Miller, has only been sworn in recently and is already facing questions from Democrats about his ability to be independent.

Senator Elizabeth Warren noted that funds are already going to the wrong place: “We’ve seen giant public companies scoop up relief meant for small businesses, an inspector general fired, promises made to muzzle independent oversight.” 

Sherrod Brown of Ohio called Miller “evasive” and “unwilling to condemn” Trump for removing other agency inspectors general ahead of the stimulus being sent out. 

Miller is tasked with trying to prove to both sides of the aisle that he can be independent, fair and a person of consequence when he releases his first report, which is due in August. 

Neil Barofsky, the first special inspector general who oversaw TARP, said: “Your first report is to amplify what you’ve found. That really defined what we would be. There is always going to be tension between a good IG and the agency.”

But some business leaders are worried that the “oversight” is going to turn into a political sideshow (as everything tends to do). Neil Bradley, chief policy officer at the Chamber of Commerce said: “There’s already growing concern that congressional oversight will in part focus on companies or sectors that various elected officials will view as unworthy of assistance, irrespective of whether they qualify under the terms of the programs in question.”

At the same time, Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell have been unable to agree on a chairman for the Congressional Oversight Commission, which is designed to be a bi-partisan entity. The commission has produced one report so far and has another due on Wednesday. 

A similar panel in 2008 took months to assemble. Kenneth Troske, a member of the panel led by Warren before she became a senator said: “There is no such thing as nonpartisan. It’s an inherent challenge of that type of work.”

Another panel, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, saw its head Glenn Fine ousted by Trump in April. It was the first of five dismissals of inspectors general that Trump made. 

Cynthia Schnedar, who has served as deputy inspector general and acting inspector general at the Justice Department said: “I don’t think the firings are going to scare most IGs. They will do their jobs, but he can pick them off one by one.”

The panel reported last Wednesday that there was “grant fraud” that included the Paycheck Protection Program loans. 

“Increased loan volume, loan amounts, and expedited loan processing time frames may make it more difficult for SBA to identify red flags in loan applications,” the report said. 

We’d make a joke about this being your tax dollars at work, but tax revenue no longer matters. This is the Fed’s money printing funding big government at work. And as we can see, two wrongs don’t make a right.

After weeks of chaotic surges and reversals in US equities, today has all of the hallmarks of being one of those sessions that, at the end of the day, if you didn’t trade you will look at your screens and wish you had.

On the other hand, however, as Bloomberg’s Richard Breslow notes, if you do trade, there is a good chance you will wish you hadn’t.

There has been more price action than it appears from a cursory look. Taking advantage of it has been another thing. And if you get gulled into chasing the market because you can’t stand watching it move without you, it has a way of punishing you for the lack of discipline. If you must get involved, pick your side and fade extremes that try to fool you into thinking you are wrong.

You won’t hear me say this very often, but it isn’t a day when following your instincts is necessarily a good strategy. Unless you are prepared to stick with positions longer than a day. And how many people are in the mood to initiate new strategic ideas on a Friday when more people have told me they’ve had enough of this week than are all ginned up.

There are a couple of things that are turnoffs and one that is worth thinking about.

• I don’t like quadruple witching days. They are often busts that are way too big a distraction. And if you don’t see the flows, there is little way to profitably trade them. That’s two strikes and you’re out, as far as I’m concerned.

• Also, a lot of the movement in asset prices have been in response to central bank comments, or the Chinese-buying-soybeans news, and the moves have been over before they were of tradable value. This one is dovish. That one is hawkish. It’s running about 50/50 so far. Then we go back to sleep. It’s hard to get too excited about fixed income moving events when volumes are so atrocious. Auctions go well. And then nothing. Don’t wait up for Fed Chairman Jerome Powell this afternoon, he won’t have changed his mind from earlier in the week.

One thing that does merit being on your radar is the big rally in China’s ChiNext Index. It seems to have taken over from the U.S. tech-heavy rally while making a four-year high today. And we all know, global equities love to follow a leader. The PBOC is being friendly and speculators are embracing the message. Before you get too excited, volumes in Europe have been very light in the early going despite a generally positive tone. But, it is entirely possible this will, all else being equal, be a net positive for U.S. markets. And color your day. But there is that option stuff to consider.

I know it isn’t popular to say, but the dollar looks OK. It’s had a nice 10-day rally. Right up to the resistance zone. Keep an eye on how it behaves in here. A lot of people have short positions because they think they are supposed to. The euro and sterling don’t trade like currencies just itching to take off. In any case, this will be the proving ground, one way or another

But, for now, most attention will be on the impact of quad witch. As a reminder, options and futures on indexes and equities are scheduled to expire, a quarterly event known as quadruple witching that typically spurs trading volume as large derivatives positions roll over.

While spikes in volume usually occur around the open and close, providing windows of robust liquidity, large price swings can happen suddenly at any time of the day.

“Investors need to be prepared,” said Chris Gaffney, president of world markets at TIAA Bank.

“When we see the run-up like we’ve seen and you have investors trying to protect their portfolios, protect the gains and having the uncertainty still out there, you’ve got some big options positions in the markets right now and the decisions to roll them or not on that day is what drives the volatility.”

Today’s massive, $1.8 trillion op-ex, which will be the third-largest non-December expiration on record, but, as Goldman notes, as a result of a substantial amount of the open interest located below spot (largest concentration is at 2800-2900) “it is not immediately clear if this alone will have a material move on the market in the immediately preceding period”, and also whether this impact would be bullish or bearish.

So if Goldman is correct, tomorrow’s should be generally a non-event. But what about after?

Charlie McElligott, cross-asset strategist at Nomura Securities, warns that if history is any guide, investors may need to get ready for a market pullback or a wider trading range. Since 1994, the options expiration in June has seen stocks falling 88% of the time over the following week, with the S&P 500 sliding 1.2% on average, the firm’s data showed.

After finally being goaded to participate in the in-person Parkchester Times debate on Wednesday, NY-14’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez showed up to debate opponent Michelle Caruso-Cabrera. But she wouldn’t take the stage and allow the event to start with the media or audience members in the room, according to the publication that hosted the event. 

AOC reportedly “demanded reporters leave the room” before she took the stage to debate MCC, according to the Parkchester Times, who labeled her a “bully” in their coverage of the event. 

The lack of media attention set off her opponent, MCC, who put out a press release Wednesday night that read: “At tonight’s Parkchester Times debate, in behavior more appropriate for a temperamental princess than an elected Member of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez demanded that reporters and audience members leave the room before she took the stage. She left the residents of the 14th District with a malfunctioning Facebook feed that could scarcely be heard.” 

MCC continued in her release, say that AOC favors censorship and calling her a socialist:

“She is a Socialist. This conduct would make the Politburo blush. She threw out residents of the 14th Congressional District who wanted to attend this debate.”

“She threw out reporters who have put themselves and their families at risk day and night these past two months covering breaking stories related to COVID and social justice,” MCC continued. 

“Like a petulant child, AOC refused to take the stage until all of these individuals were removed from the room. What kind of representative does that?,” Caruso-Cabrera said. 

Caruso-Cabrera said that AOC was scared she could lose next week’s election. 

“AOC refused to participate in this debate until journalists shamed her into doing it…and boy, did she get her revenge on all of them tonight by having them tossed out of the debate hall,” she said.

With regard to the debate itself, MCC said: “I called on AOC to say whether or not she would vote for Joe Biden in Tuesday’s primary. AOC refused to answer the question. AOC could not commit to supporting our standard bearer in the Democratic Party. She refuses to work with Speaker Pelosi.”

“She denigrates the work of her fellow Democrats and says she cares more than they do. She sure cares more than them about one thing, and that’s herself. She is a joke of a representative, and that’s why I am going to defeat her on Tuesday. It’s time to deliver real results for the Bronx and Queens,” she concluded.

Summary:

• Global deaths top 450k
• Cases top 8.5 million
• Germany reports largest jump in cases in a month
• UK lowers virus threat ranking
• China releases genome showing Beijing outbreak caused by “European” strain
• India reports another record jump in cases
• Russia reports ~8k new cases
• Singaporeans allowed to dine in restaurants for first time

* * *

We imagine China’s European trading partners were less-than-pleased earlier this week when the Chinese state-controlled press blamed a cluster of cases tied to southwestern Beijing’s Xinfadi wholesale market on imported European salmon. Hence why, amid the flood of other COVID-19 related headlines, Chinese health officials quickly gave Norwegian salmon imports the “all-clear”, before doing a complete 180 on the whole salmon narrative.

Was the salmon a false narrative planted to distract and deceive the Chinese people? One might even call it a red herring. That’s certainly possible. But salmon aside, China is clearly doubling down on the insinuation that Europe is somehow responsible for this latest cluster of cases. On Friday, China released genome sequencing data for the coronavirus responsible for a recent outbreak in Beijing, with officials claiming it had been identified as a European strain based on a “preliminary” study.

As Beijing lays the groundwork to blame every future recurrence of the coronavirus on a foreign source, Twitter and other American social media companies are showing surprisingly little interest in holding Communist Party officials accountable for spreading vicious lies, like conspiracies about the virus originating in the US, even as they continue to go after President Trump.

Meanwhile, new confirmed cases of coronavirus remained stable in China’s capital on Friday after a public health official declared Beijing’s latest outbreak under control yesterday, as we reported.

According to the official numbers, the city recorded just 25 new cases over the prior day, an increase o just four from Thursday’s total. Only 32 cases were confirmed countrywide.

“The epidemic in Beijing has been brought under control,” Wu Zunyou, thein chief epidemiologist of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said during yesterday’s press briefing. “When I say that it’s under control, that doesn’t mean the number of cases will turn zero tomorrow or the day after,” he cautioned. “The trend will persist for a period of time, but the number of cases will decrease, just like the trend that we saw (in Beijing) in January and February.”

In Europe, a group of the UK’s chief medical officers has finally conceded to lowering the UK’s coronavirus threat level one notch as the country’s virus curve has finally started to plateau.

To be sure, the UK had a pretty difficult time of it. The Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has the third-highest death toll in the world, and has just eclipsed the 300k-case mark. As of Friday morning in the US (noontime in London), the UK had 301,935 confirmed cases, and 42,737 deaths, though reporting by the FT on excess deaths has shown that the total number is likely 10k-20k higher.

Because of this, the UK’s Joint Biosecurity Center recommended moving the COVID-19 risk in the country from the second-highest level, 4, which means transmission is high or rising exponentially, to level 3, which means the virus is in “general circulation” – hardly reassuring, but it’s progress nonetheless.

Singaporeans, meanwhile, will be allowed to wine and dine at restaurants, work out at the gym and get together in groups of no more than five people after most lockdown restrictions are lifted on Friday. The tiny city-state has managed to finally bring an outbreak spreading almost exclusively among migrant workers living in densely packed dorms under control, a major milestone for Southeast Asia, as Indonesia surpasses Singapore in the number of cases.

For an even bigger milestone, the global death toll topped 450,000, while the global case total topped 8.5 million (8,513,725 as of Friday morning in New York).

As Johnson tries to manage the reopening under an endless barrage of criticism, it appears the UK’s virus curve has finally plateaued.

Russia reported 7,972 new cases on Friday, pushing its nationwide tally to 569,063. Russia’s national covid response center counted 181 deaths, bringing the official death toll to 7,841.

India has recorded 13,586 newly confirmed cases today, raising its total to 380,532. Still, shops, malls, factories and places of worship have been allowed to reopen while schools and cinemas remain shuttered.

On the vaccine front, German biopharmaceutical company CureVac said Thursday that it had started its first clinical vaccine trial for its vaccine candidate. The trial is being conducted at the University of Tuebingen; it involves more than 100 test subjects aged between 18 and 60. The first trial results are expected in two months.

In other news out of Germany, the home of what was perhaps Europe’s best-managed major outbreak, public health officials with the Robert Koch Institute just reported the country’s highest daily jump in new virus cases in a month.

Meanwhile, in the US, despite another batch of record hospitalization numbers (out of Texas) and case numbers (in California, Florida and elsewhere), the number of states with rising 7-day averages has declined slightly to 20, according to the NY Times.

As the situation grows increasingly dire, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is extolling yoga as a way of building a “protective shield” of immunity against the coronavirus, as his nation battles a surge in infections.