Market trends have mostly paused on indecisive trading as today’s release of US inflation (CPI) data approaches. Rising inflation has become a major concern and today’s release may have a significant impact upon price movement of stock markets and the US dollar.
WTI Crude Oil November futures again made a new 7-year high daily close above $80 yesterday, but the bullish momentum has slowed to a crawl. The bullish trend is still valid but a strong reversal is quite possible later today.
In the Forex market, the USD/JPY again rose firmly yesterday, reaching a new high at 113.78 – another new 2.5-year high. This is due mostly to weakness in the Japanese yen, and we are likely to see the price continue to rise over the short term. The EUR/USD currency pair is also in a downwards trend but momentum is slow there, with the price right now in a bullish retracement.
Global stock markets are mostly lower, with north American markets falling yesterday while most Asian markets fell during Wednesday’s session. The Japanese Nikkei 225 Index is down slightly by 0.20% while the Chinese HSI is down by 1.43%.
Last week saw the seventh consecutive weekly fall in global new confirmed coronavirus cases.
It is estimated that 47.6% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination.
Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 239.4 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.04%.
The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Armenia, Australia, Barbados, Bulgaria, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, and the Ukraine.