Oil prices plunged on unrests in China

North American stock markets had a good run last week on after the minutes from the last meeting of US central bank’s officials showed they are leaning toward slower pace of interest rate increase. S&P 500 and Nasdaq added 2.02% and 0.73% and Canada’s S&P/TSX advanced 2.04% last week.

 

The global markets, however, declined on Monday on the news that there are widespread violent protests around China in defiance to zero Covid policy of the government. China’s government signaled that they might be an end to the restrictions, but they imposed new one as soon as the Covid cases hit an all-time high which cause anger of the citizens.

 

The commodity markets including oil were gradually advancing with China’s reopening as the world engine of growth, but Oil prices plunged today with Brent crude trading at 81 a barrel, the lowest seen year to date.

 

US dollar and gold as the safe havens edged higher while Canadian dollar as heavily dependent on Oil prices declined. North American markets will be eying US jobs report this week and the Fed Chair Jerome Powell notes to determine the direction of the markets.