- Several major global stock market indices closed Friday at all-time high prices. However, stocks have been mixed since this week opened a few hours ago.
- Bitcoin reached a record high above $42,000 on Friday, making an incredible 40% gain over the week, but has fallen strongly by more than 19% in just two days since that high was made. Other cryptocurrencies are also falling sharply.
- The U.S. House of Representatives has begun proceedings intended to impeach the president and to pass a resolution demanding the emergency replacement of the president with the vice-president. As the president will be leaving office in nine days, and the moves have either very little chance of success or cannot be completed within this period, it is clear this is political theatre that will have no real impact on the market.
- Most major currencies are in strong, long-term bullish trends against the U.S. dollar. However, the U.S. dollar rose last week and has made a strong comeback since this week opened a few hours ago, suggesting we are about to see a deeper counter-trend movement.
- Last Friday’s non-farm payrolls data showed fewer jobs had been created than had been expected, but the headline unemployment rate fell while average hourly earnings rose sharply. The data boosted the dollar, suggesting that markets are seeing a less dovish Federal Reserve as a probable result of the data.
- Global coronavirus deaths have increased dramatically since early October to reach a level approximately 66% higher than the peak last April.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 90.2 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.14%.
- The coronavirus vaccine drive has been criticized in the U.S. and E.U. for its relatively slow pace so far, although there are steps being taken in the U.S.A. to speed up the process. It has been progressing fastest in Israel, which has already administered a first shot of the Pfizer vaccine to 21% of its entire population (including 75% of the over-60s), after the country began a hard lockdown Friday as the rate of infection increased dramatically. The U.A.E. ranks second, having now vaccinated more than 10% of its population. For most of the world, a vaccine seems distant: only 7 countries have vaccinated more than 1% of their population.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Austria, Bahrain, Bolivia, Bosnia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Senegal, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Tunisia, the U.S.A., the U.A.E., the U.K., Uruguay, and Venezuela.