More Good News than Bad this Week
04/09/2020
Good News
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Dr. Anthony Fauci announced today that COVID-19 death projections in the U.S. are now at 60,000 and not going to be in the 100,000 to 240,000 range announced last week;
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Today, the Federal Reserve offered sparse, but at least some details about its highly anticipated $500 billion Municipal Liquidity Facility program. We review some specifics and offer some opinions below;
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The Dow Jones Industrial average gained 285 points (or 1.22%) today partly based on the news of $2.3 trillion of additional stimulus programs from the Federal Reserve. The $500 billion Municipal Liquidity Facility program was part of that Fed announcement;
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A fourth phase of federal relief is being considered by Washington, D.C. lawmakers which could amount to another $100 billion for hospitals and $150 billion for state and local governments; that is if politics do not get in the way; and
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The primary municipal bond market continued its healing this week, and the entire negotiated calendar and some of the day-to-day calendar successfully priced.
Bad News
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Another 6.6 million jobless claims were filed, which makes 16 million over three weeks or 10% of the U.S. workforce;
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There is some bad COVID-19 news as deaths in New York are still peaking;
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Although human testing for a COVID-vaccine began, it is not likely Americans will be able to consider themselves completely safe until fall of 2021, according to Bill Gates; and
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Illinois’ outlook lowered to “Negative” by Moody’s and S&P. .
