Goldman Sachs are now expecting the US Federal Reserve to hike interest rates 4 times over 2022 following last week’s FOMC meeting minutes. Friday’s NFP data release added little to the debate and triggered little market reaction following the release, despite net new jobs undershooting the consensus by approximately 50%.

Pexels

In early trading in this week’s Forex market, the Australian and US dollars are strong while the Japanese yen and Swiss franc are weak. Most stock markets are also rising slightly in off-hours trading, giving early signs today may see a small comeback for risk sentiment (FXA, UUP, FXY, FXF).

It is likely to be a quiet day in the Forex market as there are no major data releases scheduled and as it is a Monday today.

Markets will begin looking ahead to Wednesday’s US CPI (inflation) data release.

Daily new coronavirus cases soared to new all-time records last week, with more than 2.5 million new cases recorded globally yesterday for the first time ever. Almost one third of these confirmed cases are in the USA.

Data suggests that the globally rampant omicron coronavirus variant, while considerably more infectious, has notably milder effects than previous coronavirus strains, with an estimated 70% reduction in the probability of hospitalization. This is potentially very good news for both health and economy, and this has helped to drive recent bullishness in stock markets.

It is estimated that 59.1% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination.

Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 307.9 million with an average case fatality rate of 1.79%.

The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mali, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Niger, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Senegal Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, the UAE, the UK, Uruguay, Vietnam, and the USA.