Welcome to Thoughts in the Market.

I'm Andrew Sheetz, Chief Cross-Asset Stragist for Morgan Stanley.

Along with my colleagues bringing you a variety of perspectives, I'll be talking about trends

across the global investment landscape and how we put those ideas together.

It's Friday, July 2nd, at 2pm in London.

Well, we're halfway through the year.

Time always seems to fly, but that's especially true in 2021, and it's a good opportunity

to step back and take stock before we move into the second half.

It's easy to forget just how different the world looked just six months ago.

COVID vaccinations had just started with less than 1% of the US population receiving any shot

by January 1st.

Today, 55% of the US population has had a shot, and it's 50% of France, 67% of the UK,

and 68% of Canada.

We still have a long way to go on the global vaccination story, but there is progress.

Those higher rates of vaccination are making a difference, even as new variants emerge.

This year began in the midst of a terrible global COVID wave, and here in the UK,

daily cases were over 50,000 on January 1st, leading to over 1,000 daily fatalities.

Today, the Delta variant has meant daily cases have risen back above 25,000 or roughly half

the January 1st level.

But thanks to widespread vaccination, the virus is much, much less lethal.

With the seven day average of COVID fatalities in the UK at just 16, the political and economic

backdrop also shifted a lot.

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