- Global stock markets traded mostly lower again yesterday as market focus moves towards tonight release from the Federal Reserve, which is expected to announce a faster pace of tapering which will conclude in March 2022, paving the way for a path of rate hikes.
- The omicron coronavirus variant is continuing to spread, and in some European countries (notably the UK, Denmark, and Norway) seems poised to become dominant within a few days. The latest data from South Africa suggests that omicron is much more transmissible but less severe than other variants, and that two vaccine doses offer only limited protection. This suggests we will see a massive wave during the next few weeks in many countries, and that hospitalizations will depend a lot upon how many people have had a recent third shot.
- The Forex market has opened the week mostly trading quietly and uncertainly on low volatility. However this is going to change today as we have a very key market event due – the Federal Reserve’s monthly policy release. We will also see releases today of British and Canadian CPI (inflation) data, US retail sales data, New Zealand GDP data, and Australian employment data. The Forex market will come to life within a few hours, potentially giving good opportunities for traders.
- Price movement in the Forex market over the past day has been dominated by US dollar strength and weakness in some of the commodity currencies, most notably the Canadian dollar.
- Commodities are mostly weaker, especially precious metals. Silver closed at a new 50-day low yesterday.
- The Turkish lira fell to a new all-time low earlier in the week, and after a sharp bounce back it declined against yesterday. The price looks set to retest the record low made very recently.
- Last week saw the first global weekly fall in new confirmed coronavirus cases after two months in which cases rose steadily.
- It is estimated that 56.1% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 271.7 million with an average case fatality rate of 1.96%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Joran, South Korea, Laos, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Nigeria, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.