A New Issue to Debate?

Macro Perspectives: Tue 6 Oct 2020

Yesterday began with the President's health outlook in question over the weekend, the markets were set to unravel when the futures market opened Sunday night.

Then Trump released a video, looking much better, and went for a drive to say hello to supporters outside of Walter Reed - talks of being discharged started as well. With that, Dow futures opened UP 130 points last night, and stocks finished up close to 2%.

We are 28 days away from the election, with the most protected man in the world now infected with COVID, and on the path to recovery, we have a lot of new pieces to the election puzzle.

COVID has for almost nine months been largely veiled in mystery. It is now being played out in front of the American people (and people around the world). Not only has everyone seen the path of the illness and the therapeutics, but the country has also been struck with the reality that the virus is not just a health and economic threat, it's a threat to national sovereignty.

The big question no one (yet) is asking: With a virus from China now having threatened to take out the American President, will the election narrative change to, dealing with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)?

China was barely mentioned in the first debate and not in the context of retribution or retaliation. This may now quickly bubble up into the one and only issue in the election. If that were the case, the advantage would clearly swing to Trump.