Lots of major events influence the global market every day. Prices fluctuate due to political, economic, or climate situations around the world. How have Forex, Stocks, Crypto, and Commodity markets performed this week?
In our weekly overview, we will highlight the major updates that took place this week in global markets.
Forex weekly overview
How did the foreign exchange market perform this week? The U.S. dollar rose against major currencies for the second consecutive week on Friday. This came after the U.S. released an important employment report, affecting the timing of the Fed’s rate hike.
After the Bank of England kept interest rates stable on Thursday and caught the market off guard, the pound had its worst week in 11 years.
The U.S. dollar index stabilized at 94.341 after rising 0.51% overnight. This raised it to a positive number for the week, an increase of 0.21%.
The pound has remained stable on Friday. It fell by 1.36% on the previous trading day and dropped by 1.34% this week.
After some of the largest central banks canceled their bets on early interest rate hikes, investors were forced to reset their monetary policy expectations this week.
On Wednesday, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde opposed the market’s bet to raise interest rates for the next October. He added that such a move is unlikely to happen in 2022.
Also, on Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stated that he was not in a hurry to increase borrowing costs, even if the Federal Open Market Committee announced a monthly reduction of $15 billion in monthly asset purchases by $120 billion.
The Fed has made labor market recovery a condition for raising interest rates. The number of non-agricultural employment in the United States will be announced later on Friday.
Economists predict that employment will surge by 450,000 in October, compared with 194,000 in the previous month.
How have other currencies performed?
After the euro fell 0.49% overnight, the euro remained unchanged at 1.1552 US dollars. It is much likely to fall slightly this week.
The dollar was stable at 113.78 yen against the yen, down 0.22% since last Friday.
The rate of normalization of the Bank of Japan policy will be the slowest among developed market central banks. However, the yen has benefited as these expectations remain unchanged and investors have reduced their bets elsewhere.
The Reserve Bank of Australia set the tone for this week on Tuesday, when policymakers insisted on a dovish stance in the face of mounting inflationary pressures.
The Australian dollar was unchanged at 0.74025 US dollars against the U.S. dollar on Friday, maintaining the 0.67% decline of the previous trading day, and is expected to fall by 1.56% this week.
After falling by 0.81% on Thursday, the New Zealand dollar was also basically flat at $0.7104, with a weekly drop of 0.96%.
Stock market weekly overview
Now, let’s discuss the Stock market’s performance this week. Before releasing the highly anticipated October employment report, Friday, stock futures were lightly traded in early trading.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 24 points, while S&P 500 index futures and Nasdaq 100 index futures hovered above the flat line.
On Thursday’s regular trading hours, the S&P 500 Index rose 0.4% for the sixth consecutive trading day and closed at a record high. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose for the ninth straight trading day, rising 0.8%, a record high. Meanwhile, the Dow dropped by 33.35 points.
Technology stocks led the S&P 500, which rose 1.5% on Thursday. Financial stocks fell 1.3%.
Market participants have digested the Fed’s plan to reduce pandemic aid before the end of November, and the central bank is expected to end its asset purchase program in the middle of next year.
On Thursday, investors also received new labor market data. In total, the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits for the first time last week was 269,000. This is the lowest total during the pandemic and lower than expected.
Analysts expect all three major averages to move higher at the end of the week. The Dow Jones Index rose 0.9% this week, while the S&P 500 Index rose 1.6% and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 2.9%.
Crypto weekly overview
Among cryptocurrencies, today’s Bitcoin price fell below the $62,000 mark. In terms of market capitalization, the world’s largest cryptocurrency fell more than 1% to $61,946. The most popular digital token has risen by 114% this year (year-to-date) after hitting an all-time high of nearly $67,000 in October.
Tokens related to the Ethereum blockchain and the second-largest cryptocurrency, Ether, also plummeted by nearly 1% to US$4,531, while Dogecoin fell by more than 3% to US$0.26.
XRP, Cardano, Uniswap, Litecoin, Polkadot, and other digital tokens have also seen price cuts in the past 24 hours. At the same time, Shiba Inu fell by more than 23% to $0.000046, and after recently surpassing Dogecoin, its market value fell below Dogecoin. However, Solana, Binance Coin, and Tether rose slightly.
The launch of U.S. ETFs based on Bitcoin futures, the adoption of cryptocurrencies by banks, the growth of NFTs on virtual gaming platforms, and investors’ need for diversified news in an uncertain interest rate environment have continuously promoted a variety of blockchain.
The development of tokens, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, has risen since October.
According to the digital asset management company CoinShares, due to the failure of the Bitcoin Futures Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) to take such action, the funds flowing into the crypto fund fell by more than 80% last week to $288 million. In the week ending October 29, the inflow of funds into the Bitcoin ETF has cooled, and last week U.S. investors were only 53 million U.S. dollars.
Due to optimism about the debut of Bitcoin futures-backed exchange-traded funds in the United States and waning concerns about China’s crackdown on the digital asset sector, Bitcoin has more than quadrupled in the past year and reached value last month. A record level of nearly 67,000 USD.
Commodity weekly overview
Interesting updates have taken place in the commodity market this week. OPEC and its oil-producing allies have agreed to continue their current production plans. Faced with multi-year high crude oil prices and pressure from the United States to help cool the market, they decided not to relax the tap.
The organization, known as OPEC+, will postpone its August plan to increase oil production by 400,000 barrels per day gradually.
The international oil benchmark Brent crude oil traded at US$81.68 per barrel at 1:20 pm. Eastern time on Thursday. The price has fallen by 34 cents from the previous day.
Oil prices have recently reached their highest level since 2014, and crude oil importing countries feel the pain.
With energy prices rising sharply in the United States and worldwide, President Joe Biden bluntly accused OPEC+ of reluctance to increase oil production.
Several OPEC ministers pointed out at a press conference that the prices of other commodities such as natural gas and coal have soared, thinking that the oil market is fortunate to have OPEC+ to regulate supply.
Since the beginning of March this year, the natural gas price in the EU has risen by 618%. The US has also increased by 127%, and the price of coal in the EU has increased by 334%. Each commodity reached these peaks in early October. Since the beginning of March, Brent crude oil prices have risen 36%.
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