- Following last week’s fall in annualized US CPI data, the risk-on rally continues with stock markets rising in much of the world. The S&P 500 Index and the NASDAQ 100 Index both rose firmly Friday to close at new 3-month highs. The Japanese Nikkei 225 Index is very close to making a new high for 2022, while several European indices are making new 2-month highs. The standout stock market is China, which is performing poorly.
- BTC/USD is rising within a bullish price channel and just made a new 2-month high price above the big round number at $25k.
- The Forex market has begun the week quietly, with the Japanese Yen gaining over the Asian session, notably against the New Zealand Dollar.
- A Reuters poll shows that the Bank of England is expected to make a 0.50% rate hike at its next meeting, before reverting to further smaller hikes of 0.25%.
- Daily new coronavirus cases globally dropped last week for the fourth consecutive week.
- It is estimated that 67.4% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination, while approximately 7.5% 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 595.3 million with an average case fatality rate of 1.08%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be most significantly increasing in Barbados, Chile, South Korea, The Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Serbia, Trinidad, and Tonga.