- WTI Crude Oil briefly traded at a new 7-year high yesterday, and continues to look bullish just below this high ahead of tomorrow’s OPEC meeting. The bullish momentum suggests a continuing rise which is attracting trend traders. Other energies also rose. Some analysts see Russia/Ukraine tensions as helping keep the price of crude oil high.
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- Global stocks mostly rallied yesterday, with the S&P 500 Index closing above its 200-day moving average for the second consecutive day.
- Agricultural commodities such as cotton, corn, and soybeans have continued to rise firmly to reach new multi-month high prices.
- In the Forex market, we continues to see selling in the US dollar. Today the Australian dollar, the British pound, and the euro are the strongest major currencies, while the US dollar is the weakest. However, this may not last long, as the true long-term trend in the Forex market is in favor of the US dollar.
- Major cryptocurrencies have continued to recover. Ethereum has moved up more strongly than Bitcoin, suggesting Ethereum would be likely to make a better long trade than Bitcoin right now. Bitcoin remains stuck below the pivotal $40k area, but Ethereum has overcome key resistance at $2,544.
- Yesterday’s release of Canadian GDP data exceeded expectations, showing a month on month increase of 0.6% compared to the 0.4% which had been expected. However, the Canadian Dollar barely reacted to the news.
- Yesterday’s release of New Zealand unemployment data saw the unemployment rate fall to a lower level than had been expected, 3.2% against 3.3%. The New Zealand dollar did not react to the news.
- Daily new coronavirus cases globally seem to have peaked two weeks ago, suggesting that the omicron variant wave may have already peaked worldwide.
- It is estimated that 61.1% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 377.9 million with an average case fatality rate of 1.49%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Afghanistan, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Barbados, Belarus, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Kosovo, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, the Ukraine, and Venezuela.