Lions. As a reminder, I will be doing a Markets A Look Ahead segment tomorrow, Monday the 17th and not today.
Just a quick rundown looking at market drivers.
WTI crude is over $84 a barrel.
The yield curve is stable with a 10yr sitting at 1.79.
The relative strength of the dollar, DXY, is sitting at 95.17
And the MMRI is 104.7
Overall not a bad set up for the market moving into next week.
I will cover all this and more tomorrow.
Have a great day!
GM
A new beginning a new week with new opportunities. Looking forward to it. Thank you!
AUSTRIA / Europe ... UPDATE
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In a press conference on Sunday, Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP), Constitutional Minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) and Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein (Greens) presented the draft of the compulsory vaccination law, which is to be passed in the National Council next week. This is to come in three phases.
ÖVP Chancellor Karl Nehammer began with an advertisement for the vaccination, which had saved him from a serious course with the clearly more harmless Omikron variant. Statistically, he should not belong to the risk group, so a mild course is not necessarily due to the dubious effect of the vaccination, because after all, there were also the "asymptomatic" courses without any complaints already since the beginning of the pandemic.
Three phases of mandatory vaccination
Unsurprisingly, the government is sticking to the Corona vaccination requirement and intends to pass the law in the National Council, despite certain calamities with ELGA. However, the government is making a virtue out of necessity. Because the vaccination obligation for all starting from 18 years is to come now in three phases:
1st phase: Starts at the beginning of February with the entry into force of the law. Here written information is to be sent to all households that a vaccination obligation exists in Austria.
2nd phase: Starts on March 15. Compliance with the vaccination obligation is checked as a control offense. Thus, the vaccination status must be disclosed to controlling bodies, such as the police in the course of their activities during road traffic controls. Violations will result in fines of up to 600 euros.
Phase 3: From then on, everyone is to be reminded of the vaccination obligation by means of a letter and sent a vaccination appointment. If this request is not complied with within one month, there will again be penalties in the simplified procedure of up to 600 euros or later in the ordinary procedure with up to 3,600 euros. However, this phase will not come into force until a further ordinance is issued, as this requires the networking of data (ELGA, digital vaccination certificate, etc.).
Government fears third phase
If the government has its way, the 3rd phase should not come into force, if possible, because the vaccination rate has already increased beforehand. This presumably stems from the desire to prevent the authorities and administrative courts from being overburdened by appeals that could even paralyze them. Not for nothing had already the city of Vienna and also others warned of an enormous administrative burden and also of costs, which could by far exceed the income from the penalties.
Since also on inquiries in the press conference the three present government members could not be elicited a date for the beginning of the third phase, it seems almost, as one would hope that the vaccination ratio rises and/or on time play, in order to be able to increase the administrative apparatus, in order to be up to the task. It was not for nothing that it was repeatedly emphasized that the goal was not to punish the citizens, but to increase the vaccination rate. For example, Health Minister Mueckstein also stated that since the announcement of a general vaccination requirement, the number of valid vaccination certificates has increased by 10 percent and the number of booster vaccinations by 30 percent.
High praise for gene therapy
Some statements during the press conference, however, raised eyebrows. That vaccination was important and protective was heard in unison from both the chancellor and the two ministers. Also that the vaccination could bring back only again the liberty and the normality, after which all long themselves. Minister of Health Mückstein even went so far as to say that vaccination is important because it is unknown how good the immune protection is after Omikron infection. The fact that the currently available vaccinations are by no means designed for this variant and also - as the example of the chancellor shows - do not prevent an infection despite three doses, however, raises doubts about the sense of the vaccination. Even if the Minister of Health believes that vaccination would train the immune system better and safer than infection with Corona.
Stop counting the stitches
It was also interesting that once again vaccination was invoked as an act of solidarity to protect oneself and others, whereas vaccinated people are similarly contagious as unvaccinated people and can both fall ill and pass on the virus. Nevertheless, Chancellor Nehammer explained right at the beginning that it was not a fight vaccinated against unvaccinated, but that it was about living as a society in freedom and only for this reason a vaccination obligation was necessary. And, moreover, it is only thanks to vaccination that we are now coming through the Omikron wave so well.
Likewise, it was important to note that the unvaccinated were still in lockdown only for their own protection. A bold statement that the government was quietly ignoring its own 5-stage plan, because intensive care bed utilization meant that Stage 1 or Stage 2 should have been in effect again long ago instead of Stage 5. Another statement also showed where the path is heading. In the future, they apparently want to stop giving numbers or digits to the individual stitches and just talk about booster vaccinations.