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 Dollar is sitting near a 2-month high as it enters a consolidation after bullish moves last week which were driven by the rising projections of a June rate hike.
❖ Jobs data out later this week will give further signals to what the Fed may do at the next interest rate decision.
❖ The uncertainty surrounding a resolution for the debt ceiling is contributing to the safe haven Dollar bulls. The Republican-owned House of Representatives and Democratic-owned Senate are heading into a pressured week of negotiations to reach some middle ground by next Monday.
❖ The Yen is holding solid as senior officials from the MOF and BOJ call for an emergency meeting on Tuesday.
Equities
❖ European stocks fall as a cloud of doubt begins to form around Congress and their ability to come to a bipartisan agreement before the US runs out of money next week Monday.
❖ Indian shares are up as Asian investors project confidence that the US will evade a default and raise the debt ceiling.
❖ Elon Musk arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, his first visit to China in 3 years. China is Tesla’s second-largest market and the Shanghai plant is responsible for an immense amount of the carmaker’s production.
❖ Pudgy Penguins, an NFT collection, sold $500,000 worth of Phygital toys on Amazon. This comes after the e-commerce behemoth announced that it will launch an NFT marketplace.
❖ Nike’s first NFT collection was launched this week on their platform SWOOSH after a successful campaign with RTFKT. Nike-owned RTFKT delivered customized Nike shoes linked to an NFT which has built hype around the shoe company’s intentions for adopting web3.
❖ STEPN has launched on iOS and offers users the ability to purchase in-app NFTs using Apple Pay.
❖ Mercedes Benz launches their web3 arm called Mercedes NXT, an adoption of blockchain-driven technology. They mentioned exploring digital objects which could hint at an NFT collection or metaverse play in the future.
❖ India, the world’s 3rd largest oil consumer, has plans to build oil refineries and expand its refining capacity to 9 million barrels per day.
❖ Oil is falling. The market is clearly moving away from risk-on assets while Congress enters the final week to come to an agreement on the debt ceiling.
❖ Gold is bearish after breaking resistance at $1936. The opportunity cost to hold the precious metal increases when interest rate hikes are being priced in. This is due to Gold being a non-yielding asset.
