- FOMC member Brainerd said yesterday that the Federal Reserve will need to increase the pace of its balance sheet shrinkage, which is seen as a hawkish tilt. This sent US stock and bond markets and WTI Crude Oil lower, and boosted the US Dollar somewhat.
- The Reserve Bank of Australia yesterday announced that its Cash Rate would remain unchanged at 0.1%, but in its Rate Statement took a more hawkish tilt as accommodative language was removed, pointing towards a likely rate hike in June 2022. The Australian Dollar responded by rising to reach a new 9-month high price.
- The Forex market is now dominated by strength in the US and Australian Dollars and weakness in the Euro and Japanese Yen. Stock markets are stable to bearish while the prices of agricultural commodities mostly rose a little yesterday.
- Bitcoin has begun to fall after repeatedly failing to break above strong resistance levels near $47k and $48k.
- There will be a release of the most recent FOMC Meeting Minutes later today.
- The war between Russia and Ukraine is in its sixth week, and recent talks suggest the parties may be inching towards a ceasefire. There has been focus on a number of civilian casualties discovered in the Kiev area as Russian troops have pulled back.
- Daily new coronavirus cases globally fell last week for the second consecutive week.
- It is estimated that 64.6% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination, while approximately 6.2% of the global population is known to have contracted the virus at some stage.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 494.2 million with an average case fatality rate of 1.25%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing only in Australia, Barbados, Bhutan, France, Laos, Malta, Samoa, Taiwan, Thailand, the USA, and Vanuatu.
- A hard testing lockdown continues in Shanghai, China where new daily coronavirus cases have increased to record levels over 5 consecutive days.