- There is a growing expectation that war between Russia and Ukraine may begin within the next few days. This is spiking the price of crude oil to new multi-year highs. WTI Crude Oil is trading close to $96. If fighting begin, the price is likely to quickly exceed $100 per barrel.
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- Asian stock markets are firmly lower over today’s session, again with the impact of war fears being felt. European and American stock markets also fell yesterday.
- In addition to WTI Crude Oil, some agricultural commodities have been advancing to long-term high prices. Corn and soybeans especially look very bullish. Such commodities tend to thrive in high-inflation environments such as we are seeing today, so will be attractive to trend traders as potential long trades.
- The cryptocurrency sector is looking more bullish today, with both Bitcoin and Ethereum finding support and making bullish reversals, pushing their prices higher.
- The Reserve Bank of Australia released minutes of its most recent meeting, which revealed the bank wants to see more sustained inflation and wage growth before responding with a rate hike. The Australian dollar weakened slightly following the release.
- The Forex market is relatively quiet. Over the short-term the euro is the strongest currency, while the Australian dollar is the weakest.
- Daily new coronavirus cases globally seem to have peaked four weeks ago, suggesting that the omicron variant wave may have already peaked worldwide.
- It is estimated that 61.8% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 414 million with an average case fatality rate of 1.41%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Chile, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Guatemala, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Latvia, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Ukraine.