Monday, July 26 brings a modest start to an otherwise very busy market week.
New Zealand published an unimpressive balance of trade report for June, while the United States will publish its new home sales percentage, also for June. The most interesting data today is Germany’s Ifo business climate index for July, which came in lower than expected at 100.8.
The coronavirus pandemic also remains a closely followed topic this week. The number of total cases worldwide since the start of the pandemic has surpassed 194.9 million. The daily infection rate globally remains between 450,000-600,000 cases per day, which is worrisome but still considerably better than the numbers seen at the height of the pandemic.
The countries with the highest number of new Covid-19 cases as of yesterday are Indonesia, India, the United Kingdom, Iran, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Thailand, France, Turkey, and the United States. They are identifying between 40,000 and 10,000 new coronavirus cases per day at the moment.
Meanwhile, the markets today are abuzz with speculation that Amazon, the world’s largest retailer, is going to start accepting cryptocurrency payments. The rumor started after a crypto-related job posting by Amazon. Considering the company’s importance and global presence, if it embraces cryptocurrency payments, that will have huge implications for how crypto is perceived and accepted.
As a result of this news, Bitcoin surged to $38,000, and other assets in this class are also doing well.
Chinese tech companies are also in the headlines today, as the country is further trying to regulate its limited “capitalism.” The government ordered online learning app EdTech to become a non-profit in an attempt to make education in China more affordable, passively encouraging people to have more children. The government also ordered food delivery businesses to offer better wages, which is going to hurt their profits, leading to huge drops in the stocks of companies like Meituan, Tencent, and more, as well as a drop in Chinese stock indices.
US stock indices are also down today, mostly because of the coronavirus, which, as mentioned above, is once again making its way through the United States, where millions of Americans are still refusing to get vaccinated. More lockdowns might be necessary in states with low vaccination rates, which is further going to depress stock prices.
