Thursday, 9th April - Short or Long?, page-8

SPI Futures traded in a 111 point range last night, with a high of 5263, low of 5152, and a close this morning of 5248, up 70 points, on volume of 15,374 contracts. Gap up at 5288 from yesterday, 5259, 5240, 5223, 5216 from last night, and down at 5195 and 5178 from last night. Despite a record number of single-day virus deaths of over 1,800, US markets ended up on 'hopeful' signs that the virus numbers are slowing down, (Yep, I don't get it either) leading to expections that some of the US economy may be able to re-open 'soon'. DOW up 3.44 pct, SNP up 3.41 pct and Canada (resource driven) up 2.29 pct. VIX down 7.17 pct to 43.35. WTI crude futures up 11 pct to 26.23. On a personal note, to an outside observer, the virus numbers appear just to be just numbers, in fact, a numbers game, which can be debated back and forth, whether they are good or bad. It's not until you lose a loved one, friend, or someone you know, that the numbers become real. Having lived and worked in several country's, I had a feeling it was only a matter of time before I knew one of the numbers. Sadly, last night, we learned of a good friend who passed away from the virus. She wasn't well, and went to the hospital (not in Australia), where she was infected with the virus, and passed away 4 days later. She was cremated within hours without any of her family or friends being able to be there, due to the country being in lockdown. I only share this to put some facts around the numbers, or put a face to the name. The chart that say's 'Number of deaths" just went up by one number - somebody we knew. Have a nice day.

	Column 1	Column 2
0	mce-anchorH	5263
1	L	5152
2	C	5248
3	R	111
4	R6	5332
5	R5	5304
6	R4	5290
7	R3	5277
8	R2	5263
9	R1	5249
10	PP	5221
11	S1	5193
12	S2	5179
13	S3	5166
14	S4	5152
15	S5	5138
16	S6	5110