- The Chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell testified before the US Senate Banking Committee yesterday, stating the higher interest rates which are being imposed by the Fed could lead to a recession. Focus on a potential impending recession has knocked stocks and commodities, particularly WTI Crude Oil. Powell with testify again later today before the House of Representatives.
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- The Forex market is currently seeing a selloff in the US Dollar, with the Euro looking relatively strong. It should be noted this is a countertrend movement which is very prone to a sudden reversal.
- British and Canadian CPI (inflation) data were released yesterday showing that Canadian inflation is running higher than expected, at 7.7%, while British inflation came in as expected at an annualized rate of 9.1%. These are the highest rates seen in either country for approximately 40 years.
- President Biden yesterday called on Congress to suspend the federal gasoline tax and for oil companies to refine crude in greater quantities to deflect mounting clamour over gasoline hitting $7 per gallon at the pump. The President blamed Putin and the oil companies for the current high prices. Notably, gasoline and crude oil futures have been selling off, not breaking to new highs.
- There will be releases today of German flash manufacturing and services data, which may affect the value of the Euro.
- Daily new coronavirus cases globally rose last week, against the long-term trend.
- It is estimated that 66.3% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination, while approximately 6.9% of the global population is confirmed to have contracted the virus at some time, although the true number is highly likely to be much larger.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 541 million with an average case fatality rate of 1.17%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be significantly increasing in Austria, Brunei, Ethiopia, Dominican Republic, France, Kenya, Mexico, Israel, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay, Bahrain, Chile, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Italy, Malta, and the UAE.