South korea. Infections slow in japan, but young adults becoming more vulnerable. Do infections in new zealand itsend weaken reputation as a covid19 beater. The Prime Minister is delaying the election. Down that is weighing matters in new zealand, but lets look at u. S. Futures. Uncertainty continues to plague markets as we kick off this new session in asia. Uncertainty when it comes to trade with the phase one meetings being postponed indefinitely. We are also getting an indefinite stalemate when it comes to stimulus talks, as well as uncertainty over the future of mailin voting and usps. Theve futures trading on s p, positive 5. 1 . The nikkei 225 up by about. 25 . We are continuing to watch price action on the topics, the worlds best performing index in august as we continue to see the encouraging recovery in industrials and financials. The japanese economy sent to crater by a record in the latest quarter. We are getting gdp numbers later today. In new zealand, back to one of the to
3000 jobs will be cut under bains new ownership. Bain capital ownership, which in addition to these details relating to jobs, we are also expecting to hear about aircraft fleet and the future as well, this after bain bought Virgin Australia in what is a pretty bold that on an industry that has been shattered by the travel restrictions and the coronavirus pandemic. Virgin australia committed to regional and charter flying. Of targetsindication and priorities when they are restructured in addition to 3000 jobs being cut. Also getting data out of australia. Manufacturing pmi, services as well as composite index coming through. Dropping from that preliminary number for july. The composite number of 67. 8 also a little bit weaker. The performance of Construction Index coming in at 42. 7, higher than 39. 5. Lets take a look at the aussie dollar. Largely to do with the situation in victoria. We have that renewed lockdown, stricter stage four restrictions. At this time, later on today and tomo
Court orders the former president alvaro uribe to go under house arrest in a case relating to witness tampering and for all. Argentina takes a major step forward in stabilizing its economy by reaching a deal to restructure the huge Government Debt. Also ahead a groundbreaking and controversial ceremony indias Prime Minister prepares to lay hindu temple foundations on the ruins of a mosque. Welcome to the program a massive explosion has leveled parts of lebanons capital beirut killing at least 78. 00 people and injuring thousands more as a shock wave smashed through the city well its just gone 6 am there in the lebanese capital and these are live pictures coming to us here at aljazeera showing just the scale of the destruction and aftermath of this massive explosion which ripped through the port and its surrounding air. Well it erupted from a poor warehouse where about 2700 tons of Ammonium Nitrate had been stored for years its believed to been set off by welders the blast was felt a 16
August 15 but also continuing down. 7 the nikkei and the futures in the u. S. Are looking lower as well. Data expected out of the u. S. Later today. And in terms of looking at some of the currencies in the region, we talked about the bloomberg dollar index. Down about. 10 . Dollar weakness is essentially beneficial to equities in this part of the world and currencies as well. Aussie, thats what youre looking like, essentially flat and new zealand had jobless numbers that came in less bad than expected. The kiwi dollar up. 2 . Lets move on to some of the commodities, gold again looking strong and well, above 2000 an ounce, a little bit of weakness in the last hour or so, down about. 2 . Terms of oil were looking at the beirut story, the port explosion there and there was concern that have geopolitical tensions emanating from that. Thats the yield picture in the points. St over 10 basis rally washe dollar rather short, and then weve got gold, the inverse correlation back at the moment. T
Figures plus. The conductor who used his time in isolation to achieve what he calls his greatest artistic success. And im just a bit of the only sport nascar bans the Confederate Flag from all its events following the protests over the death of childe floyd. So then the World Health Organization has warned that cave in 1000. 00 infections are accelerating in parts of africa raising concerns about how developing nations will cope with the pandemic w. H. O. Says 75 percent of the continents 200000 confirmed cases had been recorded in 10 countries a quarter of those are in south africa with the western cape region including cape. The hardest hit the u. N. Agency says a lack of testing kits remains a big problem right across africa lets get more now from ahmed addresses in the 90 s. Capital. How bad is the situation across the continent of africa. Right so its a really worrying need to talk to any Health Official on the continent and who will tell you that they are really really concerned