- Yesterday’s release of the most recent meeting minutes by the US Federal Reserve contained no surprises, indicating that the Fed plans to hike rates again at the next meeting by either 0.50% or 0.75%. The minutes show a strong determination to hike rates to bring down inflation regardless of the damage to the economy and markets which may result.
- Yesterday again saw strongly above-average price movement in the Forex market, with the US Dollar Index powering to another new 2-year high, and gaining most in the EUR/USD currency pair and against Gold. The EUR/USD made another 19-year low price yesterday and looks likely to fall further over the coming days. Some analysts see EUR/USD reaching parity for the first time since the 1990s.
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- Most stock markets have risen over the past day, with major US indices looking considerably more bullish, albeit within a long-term bear market.
- The US treasury yield curve inversion strengthened yesterday, as the 2-year yield overtakes the 10-year yield. Such a yield curve inversion is traditionally taken as a sign of recession.
- The two major cryptocurrencies, BTC/USD and Ethereum continued to avoid major bearish breakdowns which seemed imminent Monday. Both cryptocurrencies have risen firmly, and their prices continue to hold up. However, if we later see Bitcoin get established below $18,500 and Ethereum below $997, further sharp falls will be likely to happen.
- Commodity markets continue to fall. WTI Crude Oil is trading below $100 per barrel.
- Daily new coronavirus cases globally rose again last week, against the long-term trend. It may be that the omicron subvariant BA5 will cause another significant wave.
- It is estimated that 66.7% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination, while approximately 7.0% of the global population is confirmed to have contracted the virus at some time, although the true number is highly likely to be much larger.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 557.7 million with an average case fatality rate of 1.19%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be significantly increasing in Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Colombia, Croatia, Israel, Lebanon, Pakistan, Switzerland, Turkey, Albania, Austria, Belarus, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Iraq, Italy, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Singapore, and the UAE.