- WTI Crude Oil briefly traded at a new 7-year high yesterday, and continues to look bullish just below this high despite OPEC’s agreement yesterday to increase oil production by 400k barrels in March. This is the eighth consecutive monthly increase in production. The bullish momentum suggests a continuing rise which is attracting trend traders. Some analysts see Russia/Ukraine tensions as helping keep the price of crude oil high.
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- Global stocks traded mostly lower during the Asian session, with NASDAQ 100 tech index making a pronounced drop yesterday, although the broader S&P 500 Index closed higher over the New York session.
- The US jobs forecast came in much lower than expected ahead of Friday’s non-farm payrolls data release. The ADP forecast predicts Friday’s data will show a net loss of 301k jobs, compared to the increase of 185k which had been expected.
- In the Forex market, we mostly see consolidation, partly due to the fact that two major central banks, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England, will be giving monthly policy and rate releases today. Recent hours have brought a small recovery in the US dollar, in line with its long-term bullish trend. Today the US dollar is the strongest major currency, while the Australian dollar is the weakest.
- Agricultural commodities such as cotton, corn, and soybeans have continued to rise firmly to reach new multi-month high prices.
- Major cryptocurrencies lost some value yesterday. Ethereum, unlike Bitcoin, has continued to hold up above key support, suggesting Ethereum would be likely to make a better long trade than Bitcoin right now. Bitcoin remains stuck below the pivotal $40k area, but Ethereum is holding up above likely support at $2,640.
- There will be a release of US ISM Services PMI data later today.
- Daily new coronavirus cases globally seem to have peaked two weeks ago, suggesting that the omicron variant wave may have already peaked worldwide.
- It is estimated that 61.1% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 385.3 million with an average case fatality rate of 1.48%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Afghanistan, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Kosovo, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, the Ukraine, and Venezuela.