- The US Dollar lost some ground over the past day against most currencies, after its strong performance last week. Notably strong performing currencies were the Euro and the British Pound, while the Japanese Yen is clearly the weakest currency. The EUR/USD currency pair rose after trading at a new 19-year low well below $0.9900, while the GBP/USD currency pair also made gains from a 2.5 year low following the selection of Liz Truss as the new Prime Minister of the UK – she will be formally appointed later today. The USD/JPY currency pair has continued to advance to nearly reach the round number at ¥141, the highest price that has been seen here since August 1998. There is a strong, long-term bullish trend in the US Dollar, and we are likely to see the currency continue to advance over the coming days.
- As expected, the Reserve Bank of Australia hiked its interest rate for the fifth consecutive month, by 0.50% to a total of 2.35%. The RBA Rate Statement showed the Bank remains focused on bringing inflation down to the 2% to 3% range, but the Bank expects inflation to peak later this year before eventually falling. The Australian Dollar barely reacted to the news, which contained no surprises.
- Bitcoin/USD is continuing to see the key support level at $19,616 hold, but it is looking heavy, and a significant bearish breakdown is beginning to look more likely.
- There will be key data releases later today of US ISM Services PMI data and Australian GDP data.
- Daily new coronavirus cases globally dropped last week for the seventh consecutive week.
- It is estimated that 67.7% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination, while approximately 7.7% 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 610.8 million with an average case fatality rate of 1.07%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be most significantly increasing in Niger, Taiwan, and Russia.