DIFX Buzz: Here’s a weekly market recap for you to start your Monday with the top news of the week.
Let’s see what happened in markets this week:
❖ The Aussie Dollar gained around 0.4% against the Dollar ahead of RBA’s latest policy meeting on Tuesday which will bring some volatility.
❖ Despite a slight decline of 0.14% to $103.83, the US dollar index has gained nearly 1.8% for the month, positioning the index for its first monthly gain since September last year.
❖ The FOMC meeting minutes are going to be examined very closely for any indication of the Fed’s stance.
Equities
❖ Asian shares edged up on Monday as a slow trading day was expected ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting minutes and a reading on core inflation.
❖ Earnings season continues this week with major retailers Walmart and Home Depot set to offer updates on the health of the consumer. Other firms reporting include chip company Nvidia, COVID-19 vaccine maker Moderna, and e-commerce storefront eBay.
❖ Meta is testing a subscription service called “Meta Verified” which allows users to verify their accounts using a government ID which will give them a blue badge. The service will be priced at $11.99 a month. Meta Verified will be rolled out in Australia and New Zealand this week.
❖ Tesla will deploy 25,000 EV cars in India as part of their ride-sharing initiative. This is a big move for India to adopt clean cars.
Crypto
❖ The NFT market gets a sudden boost amidst a $400m Blur airdrop which spurred massive activity in the marketplace. Since December, Blur has competed with OpenSea for dominance over trading volumes which has impressed the entire NFT community.
❖ In response, OpenSea lowered fees to 0% for a limited time to combat their recent rival Blur which has dominated the space for the past 2 months.
❖ ZK-Rollup project zkSync has allowed devs to begin deploying Dapps on their mainnet as a counter to Polygon announcing their zero-knowledge solution will go live on March 27th. The layer-2 race has been getting heated as projects are close to achieving what they set out to do. ZK-rollups will compete with the Optimistic rollups like Optimism and Arbitrum.
❖ Gold has put in small gains at the start of the week due to a weak start to the week by the Dollar. We can expect Gold Spot to trade flat until the FOMC meeting minutes and US data which is expected to bring some activity to the markets.
❖ Oil prices increased on Monday due to positive sentiment about Chinese demand, ongoing production cuts by major oil producers, and Russia’s plan to reduce supply.
❖ Analysts predict that China’s oil imports will reach a record high in 2023 to meet the rising demand for transportation fuel in the region.
❖ South Africa’s electricity crisis will impact the global supply of Platinum Group Metals for 2023. South Africa’s electricity cuts caused by frequent breakdowns in coal-fired power plants will result in a 5% decline in PGM’s output this year.
