Coronavirus Watch.

A total of 858,892 deaths have been recorded so far. Italy has the highest number of deaths with 12,428 followed by Spain with 8,464. There are 515 new reported cases with the USA reporting a total number of 48 new cases. America has more confirmed cases than any other country. South Africa with a total of 1,353 cases but has not recorded in any new cases in the last 24 hours. The death toll in South Africa has remained at 5.

Oil Price Drops

March was an absolute nightmare for the oil industry. US oil prices crashed 54% in the month, touching levels unseen in 18 years. That makes March, by far, the worst month since oil futures started trading on NYMEX in 1983. 
The next closest, according to Refinitiv, was October 2008 when crude collapsed by 33% during the height of the financial crisis. Brent crude, the world benchmark, similarly plunged 55% this March. That’s the worst on record going back to 1988. The oil nightmare was brought on by a double whammy: shrinking demand and swelling supply.

Hyundai turns training institutes into treatment centers.

Hyundai Motor Group has provided two of its  training institutes as treatment centers for coronavirus patients with mild symptoms. Hyundai also donated 5 billion won(4.1 billion) to Korea Disaster Relief Association to help support efforst to fight against coronavirus in the country.(CNN)

Ford to build 50,000 ventilators in 100 days

Ford plans to make as many as 50,000 simple ventilators for coronavirus patients within 100 days and plans to continue producing 30,000 per month after that, the company announced Monday. The automaker said it will make the ventilators at its Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The factory will be staffed by 500 United Auto Workers union members who have volunteered to work on the project, Ford said. The ventilator is currently being made by Florida-based Airon Corp. and has been licensed by GE Healthcare. Ford (F) has been working with GE Healthcare to help it increase its ventilator output.

Gold Drops

Gold traded with a mild negative bid through the early European session and dropped to multi-day lows in the last hour, albeit has still managed to hold above the $1 600 mark. The precious metal extended its sideways consolidative price action yesterday and remained confined well within a broader trading range held over the past five trading sessions or so as investors awaited a fresh catalyst before positioning for the next leg of a directional move.Against the backdrop of the Fed’s unlimited QE and a massive $2,2 trillion US economic stimulus package, investors’ sentiment got an additional boost from a sharp rebound in the Chinese manufacturing sector activity boosted investors’ confidence yesterday.