- The US Dollar continued to move in line with its strong, long-term bullish trend yesterday, as the strongest major currency, while the Japanese Yen was certainly the weakest. This situation pushed the USD/JPY currency pair today to a new 20-year high price above ¥129 yesterday. However, recent hours have begun to see a strong move against the US Dollar. We may see further advances in the USD/JPY currency pair over the coming days, but the price might struggle to get beyond ¥130 as this is the figure the Bank of Japan have stated as the furthest they want to see the Yen to fall. The Bank of Japan and the Japanese Finance Minister are making delicate comments quietly encouraging the depreciation, but essentially expressing concerns at its very rapid pace.
- The Forex market is seeing a counter-trend move today in the US Dollar, which has suddenly begun to sell off, while almost all other major currencies are advancing against it. It is not clear how long this will last before the long-term trend starts to reassert itself.
- Many commodities, especially agricultural commodities, have been advancing to reach new long-term highs, but they almost all saw drops from highs yesterday. The market was affected by a new report from the International Monetary Fund which lowers forecasts for near-term global growth, especially in the UK. This saw Natural Gas drop by almost 10% while the price of Crude Oil also fell.
- Stocks are mostly a little higher, while yields on US Treasuries have continued to climb.
- Bitcoin may have found key medium-term support at $38,961.
- There will be a release of Canadian CPI (inflation) data later today.
- Daily new coronavirus cases globally fell last week for the fourth consecutive week.
- It is estimated that 65% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination, while approximately 6.4% of the global population is known to have contracted the virus at some stage.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 505.4 million with an average case fatality rate of 1.23%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing only in Canada, Samoa, and Taiwan.
- A hard lockdown continues in Shanghai, China, as seven coronavirus deaths were confirmed there yesterday. The lockdown is causing some supply chain disruption globally, although certain vital factories are beginning to reopen.