The week marks the end of the second calendar quarter. The first six months of 2020 has been nothing short of frightening for just about everyone in the world, as COVID-19 spread rapidly around the globe. The pathogen, which has been dubbed “the virus of truth” has had far-reaching consequences beyond the disease itself. Its impact has exposed deficiencies in many economies, dysfunction in politics and defects in the social compact. Next week should provide investors with more economic data to assess how the pandemic has affected various countries. In the US, the closely-watched non-farm payroll is expected to show a gradual improvement in the number of jobs added. But the 2.9 million jobs created in June pales in comparison to the 20 million jobs that were lost in April. China is expected to say that its manufacturing, non-manufacturing, and services industries continue to expand, despite the pandemic. Purchasing managers’ indices (PMI) for the key sectors are forecast to come in above 50....