• Most stock markets have traded lower as markets focus on signs of slowing economic growth and looming QE tapering from the Federal Reserve.

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• In the Forex market, the US dollar is bid again, while the commodity currencies (especially the CAD and AUD) look weak again. Safe-havens such as the CHF and JPY are also relatively strong (FXC, FXA, FXY, FXF, UUP).

• Bitcoin dropped quickly by almost 20% last Tuesday, and continues to look heavy below the resistance level at $46,595.

• Today will bring the European Central Bank’s monthly monetary policy release. This will likely cause volatility in EUR (and to a lesser extent the GBP) currency pairs and crosses (FXE, FXB).

• Last week saw the second consecutive weekly fall in global new confirmed coronavirus cases after over 2 months of weekly rises, suggesting the current wave driven by the delta variant may have peaked.

• It is estimated that 41.1% of the world’s population has had at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination.

• Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 223.4 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.06%.

• The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Albania, Australia, Austria, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bosnia, Bosnia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Norway, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, the U.K., and Vietnam.