- Friday saw the major US stock market indices the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ 100 close at new record highs. It is likely that the coming days will see still higher prices in these stock market indices.
- Chinese Non-Manufacturing PMI monthly data show the first contraction in the Chinese services sector since the coronavirus pandemic began. This suggests that the Delta variant is having a considerable impact within China. China’s stock market has traded lower today.
- In the Forex market, last week saw a relatively firm reversal against the US dollar, enjoyed mostly by the New Zealand and Australian dollars. Most currencies have continued to gain slowly against the greenback this week, with the NZD especially strong. The NZD/USD has the highest volatility in the Forex market and saw a spike up during the Asian session.
- Today will see releases of Canadian GDP data, US CB consumer confidence, and Australian GDP numbers. This could boost trading in AUD/USD and USD/CAD, two currency pairs which have been quite active lately already.
- Last week saw the first global weekly fall in global new confirmed coronavirus cases in over 2 months.
- It is estimated that 39.3% of the world’s population has had at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 217.9 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.08%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Albania, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Canada, Costa Rica, Dominica, Estonia, Ethiopia, Germany, Greece, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Kosovo, Malaysia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Philippines, Serbia, Slovenia, Somalia, Switzerland, the U.S., the U.K. and Vietnam.