| Brazil is now the new virus hot-spot, while India rose at the fastest pace in Asia to top 100,000 cases. Millions of newly jobless citizens now pose a looming political threat to Chinese President Xi Jinping. And despite recent gloomy warnings from the like of Stan Druckenmiller and David Tepper, some of the world's biggest investors are sticking with or boosting their holdings. Here are some of the things people in markets are talking about today. Brazil is now the world's fastest-growing virus hot spot, accounting for 13% of new cases globally in the past week, while infections in India rose at the fastest pace in Asia to top 100,000. Russia's prime minister returned to office three weeks after testing positive -- a period that saw total cases in the country almost triple to just under 300,000. The European Union criticized President Donald Trump's threat to permanently freeze U.S. funding to the World Health Organization, saying the fight against the coronavirus required global cooperation. And China may look to target exports from Australia over its calls for a probe into the origin of Covid-19. Meanwhile, New York City is struggling to meet the standards to reopen and still seeing rising hospital admissions, while Governor Andrew Cuomo hailed progress in the state capital region and Long Island. Here's how Bloomberg is tracking the pandemic. Stocks in Asia looked poised to track their U.S. peers lower after reports circulated that Moderna Inc.'s vaccine study, which was credited in part for Monday's rally, didn't produce enough critical data to assess its success. Treasuries gained. Futures dropped in Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. The S&P 500 declined about 1%, losing ground in the final hour of trading. Riskier assets had started the week on the front foot after the Moderna news fueled hopes for a coronavirus vaccine, but investors are struggling to maintain the optimism as they continue to monitor efforts to both contain the pandemic and restart economies. Earlier, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated during a Senate hearing that the central bank is ready to use all the weapons in its arsenal to help the U.S. economy endure the coronavirus pandemic. Wall Street heavyweights including Stan Druckenmiller and David Tepper may be sounding the alarm about stocks, but some of the world's biggest investors are sticking with or boosting their holdings. Money managers and strategists at Capital Group, Franklin Templeton and BlackRock Inc., which together oversee about $8.8 trillion, say equities remain attractive even as the threat of a second wave of coronavirus infections looms at a time when there's no medical solution. Their reasons? We're past the first stage of the outbreak, central banks and governments are supporting markets, and shares are appealing compared to other asset classes such as bonds. Franklin Templeton's multi-asset solutions group, which manages about $123 billion, tentatively increased equities in mid-March. The team is betting global equities will outperform bonds until the end of 2021, according to Wylie Tollette, its head of client services. Here are some of the portfolio changes the firms are making. All over China, millions of newly jobless citizens now pose a looming political threat to Chinese President Xi Jinping. While the authoritarian state doesn't hold democratic elections, it still faces strong internal pressures to deliver economic gains to the nation's 1.4 billion people. And Xi in particular has zeroed in on income levels as a key source of its overall legitimacy to govern. In a Dec. 31 speech, Xi said 2020 would mark a "milestone" as China finishes "building a moderately prosperous society." As originally envisaged, that involved doubling per-capita income by 2020 from 2010 levels, doubling gross domestic product and eliminating poverty. Xi has called those goals "a solemn promise our party has made to the people and to the history." Already challenged by the long economic slowdown and the U.S.-China trade war, those goals are suddenly being pushed out of reach by the coronavirus pandemic. That reality is expected to be clear this week at the annual meeting of the legislature, the biggest political event of the year in China: Xi's government may avoid giving a numerical growth target for the first time in decades as the world's second-largest economy braces for its worst performance in the post-Mao era. Australia's success in curbing Covid-19 infections is allowing it to slowly ease some restrictions even as it remains largely closed off from the rest of the world, taking its economy back to the pre-globalization era. Mining and agriculture continue to support exports and a government-sponsored group is looking at ways to revive manufacturing. But the flow of foreign tourists, students and immigrants has been frozen, pinning hopes for a rebound on local consumption. The closed borders and domestic reliance has the economy harking back to the 1980s, before the lifting of tariffs opened up trade and Paul Hogan offered to put another shrimp on the Barbie for international visitors. Australia's economic recovery makes an interesting case study: Household consumption, which makes up around 55% of the economy, has been boosted on the one hand by people stocking up on essentials during the lockdown, but hammered on the other as they couldn't eat out or go to the movies. Shops and restaurants are gradually reopening but, for consumption to drive any rebound, households must put aside concerns over job security and debt to drive spending. That may be tough. What We've Been Reading This is what's caught our eye over the past 24 hours: And finally, here's what Tracy's interested in this morning There's been a lot of hand-wringing over why stocks have been so range-bound in recent weeks. Sure, there's been volatility within the range, but there hasn't really been a break out in either direction. The explanation seems pretty clear though — investors are trying to price the possibility of two binary outcomes.  In one outcome, a successful coronavirus vaccine is quickly developed and administered, making the global pandemic a relative blip and setting much of the world on course for a V-shaped economic recovery. In the other outcome, there's no vaccine at all and the virus ping-pongs its way around the world, causing a series of rolling lockdowns that last for at least another year. At the moment, it's hard to tell which of those scenarios is more plausible. So stocks are stuck and will remain so while this "either-or" narrative dominates. You can follow Bloomberg's Tracy Alloway at @tracyalloway. The best in-depth reporting from Asia and beyond. Sign up here to get our weekly roundup in your inbox. | 
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