Forex Today: WTI Crude Oil Breaks $78

WTI Crude Oil briefly traded above $78 level per barrel at a 6-year high as a key OPEC meeting determined to leave output unchanged. Brent Crude reached a high just below $82. There is a possibility of further rises over the coming days, with trend followers very interested in buying crude oil right now.

In the Forex market, the USD is the strongest major currency, while the EUR is the weakest. The EUR/USD currency pair is somewhat likely to see lower prices over the coming days, if it can make a daily (New York) close below 1.1574.

Global stock markets mostly fell yesterday, with the S&P 500 Index closing below its 100-day moving average and the Japanese Nikkei 225 Index down by more than 2%.

The rise in the US dollar is being given a tailwind by the US debt ceiling crisis and a perception that the Federal Reserve has made a shift towards a more hawkish policy of earlier QE tapering and an earlier hike in the interest rate.

The Reserve Bank of Australia left its cash rate unchanged and monetary policy dovish, so there were no surprises or real changes here.

Today will bring a release of US ISM Services PMI data.

Tomorrow will see the monthly policy release from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.

Wednesday is a public holiday in China.

Last week saw the sixth consecutive weekly fall in global new confirmed coronavirus cases after over 2 months of weekly rises.

It is estimated that 45.7% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination.

Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 236.1 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, Belarus, Belize, Bulgaria, Croatia, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, the Ukraine, and the UK.