As the week gets off to a start and the world collectively says "Uh-oh" to the omicron virus, the EUR is the strongest and the NZD is the weakest. Bah humbug. The Netherlands impose the full lockdown will nonessential shops. UK is contemplating stricter measures. Germany is barring UK travelers.
The USD is mixed with gains vs the commodity currencies (CAD, AUD and NZD), and down vs the JPY. it is near unchanged vs the GBP and the CHF.
Over the weekend the Build Back Better bill was squashed by a "no" from key swing voter Senator Manchin.
US stocks are down sharply on the omicron risk is case is soared over the weekend. China remains a concern as concerned about a lockdown and its impact on global supply chain remains a key worry. PS the China Olympics are scheduled for from February 4 to February 20.
Crude oil got hammered as lockdowns way on the demand side of the equation.
A snapshot of the markets shows:
- Spot gold down $-1.80 in my 0.10% $1796.10
- Spot silver is down $0.10 a month or 0.46% $22.24
- WTI crude oil futures are trading down $3.18 at $67.55
- The price of bitcoin is lower at $45,832.26. On Friday was trading around $47,000 around 5 PM. It traded as low as $45,625 over the weekend
US and global stocks are lower:
- Dow industrial average -421 points after Friday's -532.2 point
- S&P index -61 points after Friday's -48.01 decline
- NASDAQ index -251 points after Friday's -10.7 point decline
In the European equity markets:
- German DAX -1.91%
- France's CAC -1.14%
- UK's FTSE 100 -1.2%
- Spain's Ibex -1.2%
- Italy's FTSE MIB -1.9%
The European debt markets, the major indices are lower with a modestly steeper yield curve.
The European debt market, the markets are taking the news in stride with modest changes in the benchmark 10 year yields:
