• Global stock markets have traded mostly lower over the day on continuing concerns about resurgent inflation, especially in the U.S.

Unsplash

• Cryptocurrencies have continued to sell off strongly. Bitcoin (BITCOMP) has fallen by more than 7% during the last 8 hours to hit a new 2-month low price, in line with the wider cryptocurrency market which has fallen strongly. Ethereum (ETH-X) has fallen by more than 10% during recent hours, but looks less bearish technically than Bitcoin right now. With such strong bearish momentum in major cryptos, further short-term falls are likely now.
• Gold, the euro and the British pound are breaking to new multi-month high prices against a broadly weak U.S. dollar (GLD, FXE,FXB,UDN).
• There are several important data releases scheduled today: the U.S. FOMC meeting minutes, British and Canadian Inflation (CPI), and Australian employment data.
• Last week saw a second consecutive weekly fall in global new confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths, suggesting that the current wave of the pandemic is starting to retreat.
• Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 164.9 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.07%.
• The fastest progression in terms of immunizing a population against the coronavirus in all but the smallest states has been in Israel, which has given at least one shot to 63% of its entire population followed by the U.K. at 54%. For most of the world, a vaccine remains distant. However, the pace of vaccination in the European Union, which now has immunized 32% of its population, has picked up significantly.
• The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Argentina, Bahrain, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Haiti, South Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Trinidad, and Vietnam.