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- WTI Crude Oil traded yesterday above $68 per barrel, reaching a new 2.5-year high price. Analysts tend to see OPEC positivity on demand prospects as helping to push the price up.
- Gold and the British pound retreated yesterday from their long-term high prices, suggesting that odds are no longer in favor of their continued rise today.
- The Forex market looks very difficult to call today, with generally indecisive price action seen in the major currency pairs. There is a strong bullish trend in the EUR/JPY currency cross which may well continue today.
- Global stock markets are still broadly bullish, but yesterday’s action was again mixed.
- Australian GDP data released earlier shows the economy growing at an annualized rate of 1.8%, exceeding the anticipated 1.5% consensus forecast. However, this data release had no notable effect upon the AUD.
- Canadian GDP data and U.S. ISM Manufacturing PMI numbers came in yesterday more or less as expected.
- Cryptocurrencies are continuing to rise, seemingly having bottomed out after falling very sharply last week. Key support areas to watch are $30k for Bitcoin and $2k for Ethereum. These cryptos may be worthwhile buys if they bounce at these levels, but if the levels are fully broken, that will be a very bearish sign. If Bitcoin breaks below $30k it could easily reach $20k quickly. Interestingly, Ethereum seems to be holding up better and looking more bullish than Bitcoin.
- Last week saw a fourth consecutive weekly fall in global new confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths, suggesting that the current wave of the pandemic is starting to retreat. The effects of the vaccination programs in the most developed economies are now being felt.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 171.9 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.08%.
- The fastest progression in terms of immunizing a population against the coronavirus in all but the smallest states have been in Israel and Bhutan, which have given at least one shot to 63% of their entire populations, followed by the U.K. at 58% and Canada at 57%. For most of the world, a vaccine still remains distant. However, the pace of vaccination in the European Union, which now has immunized 38% of its population, has picked up significantly. In the U.S., 50% of the population has been vaccinated.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bhutan, Bolivia, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Fiji, Haiti, Indonesia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, U.A.E., Venezuela, and Vietnam.