- Stock markets fell sharply yesterday after briefly trading at new all-time highs, with the S&P 500, NASDAQ 100, Dow Jones and Nikkei 225 indices closing firmly down. Risk sentiment has been spooked by concerns that the coronavirus is continuing to spread aggressively and may develop more mutations which could be resistant to existing vaccines, the hard lockdown in the U.K. announced yesterday, and polls which show the Democrats are narrow favorites to gain control of the Senate tonight.
- The price of Bitcoin fell strongly yesterday but recovered somewhat to remain trading above the psychological round number at $30K. An FCA regulatory ban on crypto CFDs will be implemented from this Wednesday on brokers operating from the U.K. with FCA regulation.
- Most major currencies are in strong, long-term bullish trends against the U.S. dollar. These trends are now reasserting themselves, with the dollar clearly the weakest major currency, with precious metals, the Australian dollar, and the euro all looking relatively strong. The British pound was especially hard-hit yesterday as it became clearer that the coronavirus situation in the U.K. has spiraled out of control and requires a hard lockdown including a general closure of the education system.
- Precious metals have surged since markets opened for the week, with gold trading as high as $1944 per ounce.
- Global coronavirus deaths have increased dramatically since early October to reach a level approximately 71% higher than the peak last April.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 85.6 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.16%.
- The coronavirus vaccine drive has been criticized in the U.S. and E.U. for its relatively slow pace so far. It has been progressing fastest in Israel, which has already administered a first shot of the Pfizer vaccine to 14% of its entire population, while the U.S.A. has administered more than 4.5 million vaccines.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Andorra, Argentina, Bahrain, Bolivia, Canada, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Egypt, Honduras, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Norway, Panama, Russia, Sweden, Thailand, Tunisia, the U.S.A., and the U.K.
Forex Today: Stock Markets Tumble on Corona, Political Fears
Adam Lemon
Risk assets sell of on coronavirus and U.S. political concerns.