Comments by UK chief medical adviser, Chris Whitty
So far, the briefing is a bit of a boring one as they are mainly outlining the current virus situation across the UK and saying that it needs to be taken seriously.

Further comments by UK health secretary, Matt Hancock
A bit of an optimistic take by Hancock surely, but that’s what all governments are preaching for the time being. This is also mostly to manage public perception of the pandemic in general and to sort of highlight that they have ‚a plan for the future‘.

Storm set to strengthen
Tropical storm Beta has formed in the gulf of Mexico and threatens heavy rains and a storm surge along the coast in the days ahead.
The NHC expects some strengthening later today and hurricane-force winds within 36 hours.

The effect will be felt through Presidential polls
87-year-old US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died from cancer on Friday. It was well-known she was receiving treatment for pancreatic cancer but there were no recent indications she was near death.

Forex news for North American trading on September 18, 2020:
Markets:
– Gold up $6 to $1950
– WTI crude oil down 4 cents to $40.93
– US 10-year yields up 0.6 bps to 0.695%
Quadruple witching was the buzz on Friday and selling equities was the trade. They opened higher initially but fell shortly after the open for a

NZD was also strong
The yen was the top performer this week while the kiwi lagged. On its face, that fits in nicely with the ‚risk off‘ theme but the old risk on/off paradigm hasn’t applied for a long time. Neck-and-neck with the yen as the top performer was the New Zealand dollar.

Comments from the London mayor
One lockdown is tough, but people endure. A second lockdown is depressing. Now I don’t think we’re going to see a March-style lockdown anywhere but I wouldn’t feel too great about being a pub owner.

Weekly commitments of traders data for the week ending September 15, 2020
– EUR long 179K vs 198K long last week. Longs decreased by 19K
– GBP long 2K vs 13k long last week. Longs decreased by 11K

S&P leads the way to the downside today
The final numbers are showing:
For the week, each of the major indices close lower:

First time since 2017, via Bloomberg
Aside from Dec 2020 contract implied yields on all of short sterling contracts out to September 2023 are below zero with 2 and 5 yr gilt yields also having negative yields.