- Stock markets mostly dipped yesterday, fueled partly by comments from a voting member of the Federal Reserve that tapering of QE should begin next month. USD/JPY responded by moving down a little more as it moves towards challenging its 2-month low price near an area of key support around 109.00.
- The RBA announced it would continue with QE tapering from September which is a clear hawkish tilt to monetary policy. The AUD has been in a long-term bearish trend but has been boosted by this news in recent hours.
- In the Forex market, the Australian dollar, euro, and British pound seem to be showing the greatest strength today, while the Japanese yen is the weakest major currency. The U.S. Dollar Index remains in a valid long-term bullish trend, but is currently showing momentum in the opposite direction.
- There will be a release of New Zealand unemployment data later today,
- Last week saw a sixth consecutive weekly rise in global new confirmed coronavirus cases, suggesting that the pandemic is advancing again due to the spread of the more highly infectious Delta (Indian) variant, which vaccines are clearly less effective against at least in terms of preventing infection. New data from Israel suggests the effectiveness of vaccines may drop greatly after only a few months, but British data contradicts such strong findings. Israel has become the first country to begin offering a third vaccine dose, to over 60s.
- It is estimated that 14.7% of the world’s population has been fully innoculated against the novel coronavirus.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 199.6 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.13%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Algeria, Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Cuba, Finland, France, Georgia, Greece, Honduras, Iceland, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the U.S., and Uzbekistan.