The impression that can be observed in the financial markets, massive sell-offs of risky assets and the performance of ten- and thirty-year government bonds. Covid-19 cases have also been increased in several US states. The decline in stocks held by households speaks to the reality that a pandemic is currently the most powerful driver of the global outlook in any country.

Brussels plans to spend billions of euros on preliminary purchase agreements with pharmaceutical companies for potential coronavirus vaccines, which is a sign of intensified efforts by the rich country to secure the supply of any future treatment. The money from the EU fund, known as the emergency aid instrument, would be mobilized to fund producers’ efforts to vaccinate quickly and extensively. Funding would focus on medicines entering clinical trials this year for mass production in 2021.

Companies whose production capacity is only in the US will not draw on the new fund, as Washington has indicated that it wants US-made drugs for itself.

Initial economic optimism is receding, and investors are once again faced with the question of whether markets will be guaranteed to fall back to their previous lows and signs of opportunities to buy stocks at attractive prices during the second wave, or whether the Fed will increase market support and none of this will happen.