General Sentiment

Market sentiment was pretty dark this morning in light of the not-so-new Delta variant taking Asian shares to 2-month lows. Investors have started to get quite risk-averse as countries start shutdowns once again and the outlook for economic recovery dims down this Friday morning.

Japan’s Nikkei dropped 2% weighed upon by calling a state of emergency. A sharp fall in yields also weighed on sentiment.

Equities

On Wall Street, US shares fell overnight, The Dow skidded almost 500 points, as economic recovery concerns got pinned up. Elsewhere, Unemployment claims that came in 373K VS 345K previous, presented a slowdown in the labor market weighing on equities.

Railroad stocks also took quite the hit as well after a report suggested that Biden is planning to break the market power of big transportation companies.

Currency Market

The dollar continued to trade higher at 92.45, after hitting a three-month peak on Wednesday of 92.844. 

The USD/JPY inched higher despite japan declaring a state of emergency, rising 0.15% to 109.95. While The Euro fell for another session to $1.1836.

Commodities; Gold

Gold looking to end the week on a good note, the yellow metal was up this morning by 0.15% to $1802. Fallen yields helped support gold prices. 

Commodities; Oil

Oil remained behind, falling despite US inventories reportedly fell for another week.  Brent fell 0.32% to $73.88, and WTI fell 0.18% to $72.81