Stock markets mostly fell strongly yesterday as US treasury yields continued to rise to long-term highs, triggering renewed inflation fears. The US S&P 500 Index had its worst daily fall since last May, and is now trading well below its 50-day moving average.
In the Forex market, the USD gained strongly against most other currencies yesterday. The GBP/USD currency pair printed an unusually strong downwards movement yesterday, suggesting it will again move downwards over the course of today, to hit an 8-month low price. The greenback also advanced to a notable high against the JPY, with the USD/JPY currency pair briefly trading at an 18-month high. If the USD/JPY currency pair can close above 111.70 today, it will be likely to rise further over the coming days. The USD has long-term strength, so the best trades this week are likely to be long USD.
Silver has recovered a little but is generally looking weak near its lows. A daily close below $22.25 will suggest it is ready to begin falling to new lows.
Crude Oil initially rose sharply yesterday but turned around and dropped quite strongly during the New York session.
Last week saw the fifth consecutive weekly fall in global new confirmed coronavirus cases after over 2 months of weekly rises, suggesting the global wave driven by the delta variant has peaked.
It is estimated that 44.7% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination.
Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 233.6 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.05%.
The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Armenia, Barbados, Belarus, Cambodia, Croatia, Egypt, Estonia, South Korea, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, and the Ukraine.