Forex Today: USD/JPY Hits 5-Year High

The price of WTI Crude Oil is back below $100 after reaching almost as high as $130 just last week. Other commodities have also continued to weaken, or at least fail to trade higher.China yesterday officially recorded its highest ever daily coronavirus new case count. Hong Kong is seeing a dramatic, record-breaking increase in coronavirus deaths, with more than 65% of over-80s unvaccinated amid a dramatic spread of infection. Hong Kong is currently recording a case fatality rate of more than 4.5%. The spread of the coronavirus on mainland China has triggered the government to impose lockdowns which are affecting tens of millions of citizens and forcing some companies to halt operations, endangering crucial supply chains.US PPI data came in lower than expected yesterday, showing a monthly increase of 0.8% when 1.0% had been expected, giving some hope for an easing of inflationary pressure.Several high-impact data releases are due today in addition to the FOMC release: Canadian CPI (inflation), US Retail Sales, New Zealand GDP, and Australian Unemployment.Daily new coronavirus cases globally rose last week for the first time since January, suggesting that the omicron variant is not ready to disappear yet.It is estimated that 63.8% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccination.Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 462 million with an average case fatality rate of 1.31%.The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing only in Australia, Austria, Bhutan, Cyprus, China, Finland, Greece, South Korea, Laos, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland, Tunisia, the UK, Vanuatu, and Vietnam.