Dear everyone,
All this doom and gloom, I'm trying to pick up the more positive news, or at least news that points to some hope in near future.
1. China's decline in COVID-19 is very real, verified by 13 foreigners travelling around China. "...the report is unequivocal. 'China’s bold approach to contain the rapid spread of this new respiratory pathogen has changed the course of a rapidly escalating and deadly epidemic,' it says. 'This decline in COVID-19 cases across China is real.'" For more, read:
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...coronavirus-they-may-not-work-other-countries
2. South Korea too, may have passed the peak of outbreak, or are close to it. Their daily infection falling for fourth day in a row, attributed to mass testing and improved public communication.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/09/asia/south-korea-coronavirus-intl-hnk/index.html
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/heal...virus-south-korea-cuts-infection-rate-without
3. Italy, like China and South Korea initially, did not clam down hard enough on outbreak, but they are now taking drastic measures like putting entire country on lockdown, which should see significant drops of infection rates over the next 2 weeks. The situation there sounds scary now due to the higher death rate, but that's mainly because of their ageing population, with 23% over 65 years old, putting more of the population at higher risk group.
4. 2 out of the 4 worst affected countries are now on the mend, the 3rd is hopefully on the mend in 2 weeks time. Iran may not be 1st world country, but their population is not as concentrated as China/South Korea/Italy. In addition, when push comes the shove, Iranian government is very capable of drastic measures - let's hope it never comes to that.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
5. With China on the mend, plus spring/ summer approaching, PET operation/ trials/ new contracts should hopefully be back in full swing again. The Chinese government will now be hungry to stimulate their economy. With any luck, we'll see more government dollars heading down PET in a few months. They are still a dominant part of PET's customer base. The RBA deputy governor Guy Debelle believes AU economy will hold up, he also adds, that "there had been no major disruption to Australian exports of iron ore and coal [to China] at this stage", giving us hopeful hints that infrastructure/ construction/ energy work in China is mostly business as usual.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03...omy-rba-guy-debelle/12044792?section=business
6. If point 5 were to be accurate, we should hopefully see PET recover faster than the rest of ASX.
All in my wishful thinking big fat hope. Believe me at your own peril ha ha ha.
(20min delay)