| Questions raised about the origins of the global pandemic. Hopes of a V-shaped recovery fade. And Asian stocks look set for modest losses. Here are some of the things people in markets are talking about today. Virus samples sent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2013 closely resemble Covid-19, according to a report in the Sunday Times. Scientists sent frozen samples to the Wuhan lab from a bat-infested former copper mine in southwest China after six men working there contracted a severe pneumonia, the newspaper said. Shi Zhengli, an expert in SARS-like coronaviruses of bat origins at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, has described Covid-19 as 96.2% similar to a coronavirus sample named RaTG13 — "almost certainly" the virus found in the abandoned mine, according to the Sunday Times. The differences between the samples may still represent decades' worth of evolutionary distance, according to dissenting scientists cited in the article. In May, the director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology said there was no live copy of the RaTG13 virus in the lab, so it would have been impossible for it to leak. There is no evidence the lab was the source of the global outbreak that began in Wuhan. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization reported a one-day high for global cases Saturday of 212,326 and Mexico overtook France with the fifth-deadliest outbreak. Hopes for a V-shaped global economic rebound are fading. The world economy is entering the second half of 2020 still deeply weighed down by the coronavirus pandemic with a full recovery now ruled-out for this year and even a 2021 comeback dependent on a lot going right. Central banks and governments have injected trillions of dollars of unprecedented support into the world economy, and some gauges of manufacturing and retail sales in major economies are showing improvement. But the reopening of businesses looks shaky at best and job losses risk turning from temporary to permanent. Much depends on the spread of the coronavirus, a vaccine for which remains out of grasp. The IMF estimates that by the end of this year 170 countries — or almost 90% of the world — will have lower per capita income. Back in January, it predicted 160 countries would end the year with bigger economies and positive per capita income growth. Asian stocks looked set for modest losses Monday as investors mulled worldwide coronavirus cases that continue to mount. Futures pointed to declines in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney. U.S. contracts were little changed, with markets due to reopen after a holiday. The Australian dollar recouped earlier losses to trade flat as the country introduced more stringent measures to keep residents at home in an outbreak hotspot. Other currencies were little changed. Investors are weighing a global equity market that remains about 40% above its March lows amid an economic recovery under threat from the continuing spread of the virus. Singapore's government defended its stand on the testing of migrant workers, the biggest cluster of its coronavirus outbreak, issuing five corrective directions under its fake-news law to media outlets and a local graduate club that carried comments by an opposition leader on the topic. The government is disputing statements by Paul Tambyah, chairman of the Singapore Democratic Party and a senior consultant in the division of infectious diseases at the National University Hospital in Singapore, who said authorities had actively discouraged testing of migrant workers, among other issues. With Singapore's election set to be held July 10 amid the pandemic that has infected more than 44,000 people in the city-state, the government's response to tackling the virus is set to be one of the defining issues in the polls. Already scarred by the global financial crisis a decade ago, a generation of younger people is bearing the economic brunt of the coronavirus. In Australia, for instance, unemployment among 15- to 24-year-olds has surged to 16.1%, compared to about 5.5% for those over 25. About a quarter of younger workers aren't eligible for the Australian government's flagship wage subsidy package.In the U.K., one-third of 18- to 24-year-old employees, excluding students, have lost jobs or been furloughed, compared to less than 15% of 35 to 44-year-olds, according to the Resolution Foundation think tank. The casualization of so many jobs for Generation Z has its roots in the last financial crisis, when many entry-level roles were cut and never returned. 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 The Bank of Japan has long been considered the world's laboratory for monetary policy experiments, having deployed the first modern version of quantitative easing after the Asian Financial Crisis. We may have a new contender on our hands, however, as the central bank of Indonesia considers directly funding some $40 billion of the government's fiscal response to fight coronavirus. Bank Indonesia has already been buying bonds directly from the government at auction, but the new "burden-sharing" arrangement would see it purchase a pre-determined amount at zero interest or below the market rate — effectively carrying not just QE but the concept of "debt monetization" itself into new territory.  The fact that an emerging market economy is pursuing a more radical form of QE is noteworthy. On the one hand, there is an argument that monetary easing isn't particularly effective in developing economies, meaning more radical measures to support government spending should be welcomed when it comes to saving the economy from a massive shock like Covid-19. On the other hand, anyone with a modicum of interest in emerging markets knows that they can be prone to inflation, the occasional currency crash, and the potential erosion of central bank independence. All three of those risks are present as Bank Indonesia crosses the rupiah-denominated Rubicon of debt monetization. It's going to be a fascinating one to watch. There's now a Japanese edition of Five Things. 世界のビジネスニュースを毎朝メールでお届けします。ニュースレターへの登録はこちら。 | 
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