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Today's Topics
3 charts today:
- We've updated our coronavirus case tracker, with some good news and some bad.
- How did Google Chrome come to be king of the internet browsers? We explore.
- The world's poorest continent, Africa, has something in abundance that many countries do not when it comes to fighting coronavirus: youth.
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Our latest case-tracker for coronavirus reveals a number of things.
The good news
1) Italy's curve is starting to show signs of flattening after 11 days of lockdown. The latest data reveals confirmed cases growing at around 14-15% a day, rather than the 35-40% daily growth of previous weeks.
2) South Korea's curve continues to flatten, giving credence to the intensive testing policy they've been running since the outbreak began.
The bad news
1) The US has had something of an acceleration in its curve, topping 10,000 confirmed cases for the first time on Wednesday.
2) Canada and Australia, newly added to this chart, are also tracking similarly to other western countries, but with a ~10 day lag.
3) This update may be the last we do on tracking cases only, as deaths begin to mount and testing is reserved for only the most serious cases in some countries. With 144 fatalities from 3,269 cases the UK for example would appear to have a mortality rate of 4-5%. Some experts believe the true mortality rate could be closer to 1% (once you include mild or asymptomatic cases). That would suggest then that the UK cases are likely 4-5x higher than those confirmed, at a minimum.
Some other good news
There's been a noticeable and significant drop in nitrogen dioxide levels over both China and Italy due to their quarantines.
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Looks like we're all going to be cooped up at home for a while, no doubt using the internet more than ever. But what browser do you use? It may be something you've never really considered, or you might be a die-hard fan of a particular one -- most likely Google Chrome -- which has seen its popularity soar over the last decade.
Why does everyone use Chrome?
Chrome was released back in 2008, when Internet Explorer was at the height of its powers. When released, the good folks from Google's PR team though it would be cool to make a comic book to explain all of its features in more detail. Faster loading times, more add-ons and extensions, a well known brand and better tabbed browsing are all key ingredients in the Chrome cocktail, according to the... comic book.
In fairness to Google, many of those improvements were genuinely tangible, but its market dominance was undoubtedly accelerated by just being part of the Google ecosystem. Every use of Gmail, YouTube, Google Docs, Google Maps or any other Google product could theoretically nudge you towards using Chrome (including having an Android phone).
Arguably the most helpful thing for Chrome? Soft competition. Mozilla's Firefox had some die-hard users, but it was run by a non-profit that couldn't devote enough resources to its development, Safari was only default on Apple devices and Internet Explorer was almost universally disliked for being slow, buggy and a security risk. Right time, right place.
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It's arguably never been a better time to be a retail investor. First you find your commission-free brokerage, then you need to figure out what stocks you want to buy.
You could go with a hunch. You could Buy Nike stock because you like the shoes, or Tesla because you think Elon is a cool guy, but with markets this volatile that's probably not your best bet.
So, you need a proper research tool right? Too bad they cost $20k a year. Or at least they did, until Atom Finance built their platform and made it free for everyone.
Already got a portfolio? You can use Atom Finance's powerful portfolio tool to track your profit & loss, analyse your portfolio's diversity and check your exposures.
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Italy has been the focus for much of the media's attention in the last few weeks as cases, and sadly deaths, have soared from coronavirus. Italy's situation has been exacerbated because of the increased risk to the elderly, with Italy's population among the oldest in the world. Italy has more than 10 million residents over 70 years old -- around 17% of the population.
Africa's natural defence: youth
Many countries are already concerned about their healthcare systems being overwhelmed. So, you'd expect countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, where there are fewer doctors and hospitals per person, to be even more at risk.
The good news for many Africans is that youth is on their side. 90% of those living in Sub-Saharan Africa are younger than 50, and just 1.5% of the population is older than 70. Of course, that doesn't mean Africa will escape unscathed by coronavirus and there are acute shortages of available treatment in many countries. In Malawi for example, there are reportedly just 25 ICU beds in public hospitals, serving 17 million people (Guardian).
Fortunately, coronavirus doesn't seem to have penetrated very deeply into many African countries yet. Malawi is yet to record any cases and Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, has just 11.
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Data Snacks
1) More than 500,000 people have signed up to use Netflix Party, an app that lets you synchronise your viewing and lets you chat to mates as you watch.
2) The US dollar has strengthened significantly against other currencies recently. Since the start of the year USD is +4% vs. Euro, +11% vs. GBP, +10% vs. CAD and +16% vs. AUD.
3) Luxury giant LVMH has turned one of its perfume factories into a hand-sanitiser production line, churning out 12 tonnes of hand-sanitising gel for 39 hospitals in Paris.
4) Hundreds of thousands of investors are using Atom Finance to make smarter investing decisions. We do, you should too.**
5) It's extremely common for the US stock market to move between -1% and +1% on any given day. Until yesterday that hadn't happened for a while, with the S&P 500 index moving more than 1% in either direction for the last 14 days straight.
6) Apple has announced its iPad Pro, which will retail for between $799 and $1499... making it essentially the same price as a Macbook or a very decent PC.
**This is a sponsored snack.
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Have a great weekend of self-isolation.
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