Below is a chart and brief excerpt from today's Early Look written by Hedgeye Director of Research Daryl Jones.

CHART OF THE DAY: COVID-19 Is Accelerating  - 01 29 2020 bull bear virus cartoon 1024x576

The key global hot spots for COVID-19 at the moment are South Korea and Italy.  In the last six days, South Korea infections have grown from 204 →  1,766 and Italian infections have grown from 3 →  453.  In the last 24 hours, bout countries added their most new cases since the start of the epidemic.

While the recent warnings from WHO, CDC, and other public health agencies sound dire, the acceleration of the outbreaks in South Korea and Italy suggest that idea of a global pandemic, and its associated impact on commerce and travel is not an improbably event. In the Chart of the Day, we highlight a graphic from WHO that shows the alarming fact that many of the new cases have had no direct contact with China.

→ What to watch from here: Growth (or decline) of cases in Italy and South Korea and/or emergence of other outbreaks globally.

CHART OF THE DAY: COVID-19 Is Accelerating  - eldj4