Forex Today: WTI Crude Oil Closes Above $80

Markets are trending strongly in several key areas, making this an interesting time for traders to be involved.

WTI Crude Oil November futures are trading above $80, having made a new 7-year high at $82 yesterday. This has been a strong breakout and it is quite likely prices will rise further over the coming days, although yesterday’s “blow off” action suggests we may have seen at least a temporary peak in the price.

In the Forex market, the USD/JPY rose very strongly yesterday, reaching as high at 113.48 – 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 and is beginning to show short-term bearish momentum – a break to new lows should be interesting there.

Bitcoin made a new 5-month high yesterday as it traded close to $57k.

Global stock markets are mostly lower, with north American markets falling yesterday while most Asian markets fell during Tuesday’s session. The Japanese Nikkei 225 Index is down by 0.92% while the Chinese HSI is down by 1.02%.

Last week saw the seventh consecutive weekly fall in global new confirmed coronavirus cases.

It is estimated that 47.5% 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 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.