Earnings Comps Distort Picture, Energy CAPEX Shortfall

In the United States a steady and persistent decline in cases continues. The 7D delta has been negative in the past 23 days. In the past few days, the &D delta has also been accelerating to the downside again. If the speed of this decline continues at its current pace then we could the daily cases drop below 20k by mid-May. As we wrote before, at this stage of the pandemic, as long as vaccinations work (evidence overwhelmingly suggests they do), eventually the successful rollout will lead to a persistent decline in cases. Based on the recent data, we think that decline has arrived.

Despite what is clearly playing out in the data and the undisputable fact that with the dramatically increased immunity, particularly amongst the most vulnerable cadre, there is simply less places for the virus to go the CDC has provided a pretty strange forecast for a major spike from May to June. Their forecast is apparently due to the spread of dangerous variants that elude the immunity provided by the vaccines. However, our preferred forecaster for COVID-19 data the IHME shows no such rise. The CDC has been generally slow to lift recommendations. They are allowing sports and indoor dining but not cruises with all vaccinated passengers. Dr. Scott Gottlieb also pointed out that they were wrong on the science surrounding outdoor transmission.

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