- The U.S. Dollar Index hit a new 2.5-year low last week, and the currency is falling against almost all counterparties. Precious metals such as dold and silver are also at or near lows, while the euro and the commodity currencies (AUD, NZD, and CAD) are strong.
- The EUR/USD and NZD/USD currency pairs are rising strongly, closing last week at new 2.5 year highs. The EUR/USD currency pair looks likely to rise higher over the coming days but faces potentially strong resistance at the nearby big figure of 1.2000.
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- Crude oil is turning down from last week’s highs ahead of today’s OPEC meeting.
- Talks are still ongoing regarding a final Brexit trade deal between the U.K. and the E.U. with a legal deadline for agreement approaching at the end of next month. Any deal or lack of one is likely to make a major impact on the British pound, and also the euro to a lesser extent.
- There is early evidence that new coronavirus cases may have made a medium-term global peak, with the daily record high set on November 13th continuing to hold and new numbers dropping off slightly.
- Last Wednesday a record high number of 12,243 coronavirus deaths were reported globally.
- Coronavirus deaths in Europe are increasing and are more than three times higher than deaths in the U.S.A. which are beginning to fall.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases stand at over 60.3 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.33%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brazil, Burma, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Georgia, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Moldova, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey, U.A.E., Ukraine, and Uruguay.