Markets revert to risk-on mode and show gains by stocks and other risky assets ahead of tomorrow’s US CPI data release.
- Stocks and risk assets are rising as markets move back into risk-on mode as optimism over tomorrow’s US CPI (inflation) print takes hold. Markets are expecting annualized US inflation to decline from 7.1% to 6.5%.
- The long-term bullish trend in precious metals continues, with the price of spot Gold rising to an 8-month high above $1884. The price of spot Silver is also bullish, but less so. In the commodities sector, Copper has also made a bullish breakout to new multi-month highs. These assets are attractive to long-term trend traders in the long direction right now, as higher prices here are likely over the coming days.
- In the Forex market, we currently see more in-trend movement in the major currency pairs, especially in the EUR/USD currency pair which is just a few pips off a new 7-month high above $1.0750. The strong long-term technical trend against the US Dollar remains, with the Euro and the Aussie the strongest major currencies, while the Japanese Yen is the weakest.
- The price of WTI Crude Oil is falling again, as the energy commodity remains within a well-defined long-term bearish trend.
- Australian CPI (inflation) data released earlier today came in a fraction higher than expected, at an annualized rate of 7.3% compared to an expected 7.2%.
- Daily new global coronavirus cases decreased last week for the third consecutive week.
- It is estimated that 69.1% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 669.3 million with an average case fatality rate of 1.00%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be significantly increasing only in China and Taiwan. A Chinese official in one province implied earlier this week that over 88 million people had been infected in just the past few weeks.
