• The Japanese Yen continues to be the strongest major currency in the Forex market, with the USD/JPY currency pair falling by almost 350 pips since the start of last week. The US Dollar is the weakest major currency.

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• US stock markets rose last week despite the emergence of data showing that US GDP had contracted for two consecutive quarters, the traditional technical measure of a recession. However, remarks by Fed member Kashkari a few hours ago stating that the Fed continues to be surprised by high inflation prints, and that the US remains a long way from its target of 2% inflation, have sent the S&P 500 Index trading lower during the Asian session.
• The price of WTI Crude Oil remains in a slow downtrend, with the price trading below $100 per barrel
• There will be a release of US ISM Manufacturing PMI data later today.
• Daily new coronavirus cases globally dropped last week for the second consecutive week, reversing the short-term trend of an increasing number of confirmed cases.
• It is estimated that 67% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination, while approximately 7.4% 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 582.3 million with an average case fatality rate of 1.10%.  
• The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be most significantly increasing in Barbados, Bolivia, Iran, Japan, Kosovo, Mauritius, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Venezuela.  

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