- Friday saw the major US stock market indices, the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ 100, close at new record highs. There has been a strong long-term bull market in US stocks but comments by Jerome Powell, Chair of the Federal Reserve, to the effect that QE tapering should begin as expected before 2022 but there will be no hurry to raise interest rates after that, helped push the market higher. It is likely that the coming days will see higher prices in these stock market indices.
- Markets have been relatively quiet during this week’s first Asian session, but Asian stock markets are mostly higher, which indicates a potentially higher open for the US stock market later today.
- In the Forex market, last week saw a relatively firm reversal against the US dollar, enjoyed mostly by the New Zealand and Australian dollars. It is too early to see any signs of a decisive reversal back into the long-term trend or a continuation of the counter-trend move.
- Today is likely to be a quiet day in the Forex market as it is a Monday and there are no high-impact economic data releases scheduled. It is also a public holiday in the UK which should mean very slow action in GBP pairs and crosses.
- Last week saw the first global weekly fall in global new confirmed coronavirus cases in over 2 months.
- It is estimated that 39.6% of the world’s population has had at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 217.2 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.08%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Albania, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Canada, Costa Rica, Dominica, Ethiopia, Germany, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Kosovo, Malaysia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Philippines, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, the U.S., the U.K. and Vietnam.
Forex Today: Dovish Fed Pushes S&P 500 Past 4500
Adam Lemon
US stock markets rose to record highs as the Fed made it clear that there will be no rush to hike rates after the coming QE taper.