- Bitcoin fell sharply some hours ago to reach a new 2-year low just above $17k, triggered by news of an emergency deal between the crypto exchanges FTX and Binance, raising fears of contagion within the retail crypto industry. The price has recovered a bit but remains below the former support level at $18,570. However, there seems to be strong new support at $18k and the price does not want to spend long below that level, suggesting there are still strong long-term buyers stepping in here.
- The US Dollar continued to decline for a third day, as stock markets rose weakly. Both are likely driven by the likelihood of the Republicans making gains in mid-term congressional elections which took place yesterday, with key results continuing to trickle in through the night in the USA. The British Pound is showing the best medium-term strength against the Dollar, putting the GBP/USD currency pair in focus.
- Initial results in the US mid-terms suggest that Republicans are making gains, but that they may not do well enough to take control of the Senate. The better Republicans do, the more of a positive bump the stock market will be likely to enjoy, and the more the US Dollar will likely decline against other major currencies.
- WTI Crude Oil seems to have made a technical bearish double top at $93.50, suggesting the current downwards movement may have some way to run.
- Daily new global coronavirus cases dropped last week, continuing a downwards trend which began last July.
- It is estimated that 68.2% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination, while approximately 8.1% 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 638.4 million with an average case fatality rate of 1.04%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be significantly increasing only in Japan.