Last week was drastic for Wall Street; in fact, Dow Jones declined by – 10.83 %. Despite the surged furious rally on Friday after US President Donald Trump declared a national emergency to combat the rapidly spreading coronavirus, the major averages still suffered sharp losses for the week.

The House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from the Democratic Party leading the US House of Representatives said that she will pass a coronavirus economic aid package on Friday. We are waiting if Trump and his fellow Republicans would support it.

The Chinese shares, the Yuan and government bond futures were subject to a strong decline last week amid a global market meltdown triggered by intensifying fears over the global spread of the coronavirus. While the European stocks finish last week by recovering by only a small gain over the course of the day as an initial rebound ran out of steam but worries about further economic turmoil of the coronavirus outbreak are on the rise.

Last week, started with a shocking crash in oil prices market by a decline of the WTI crude oil by -20.86%, followed by increasing signs of disruptions caused by the virus, saw selling pressure break through even the stimulus measures by several major banks. The collapse in prices on Monday was explained by a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Travel, leisure stocks, and cinema operators were also under immense pressure from the outbreak, due to fears by clients and new rules imposed by the government for the limitation of gathering peoples. Especially, the airline stocks that have been particularly hit by the virus curbing movement, with US travel restrictions on Europe adding further pressure. While some airlines were seeking government aid to stay in the air.

The last week, Gold and silver recognized an important correction after huge upside movement a week before and recording respectively -8.64% and -15.16%; amid a wave of the global risk-aversion trade and strong market volatility fueled by fears about the economic impact of the deadly coronavirus to the global economic growth.

Bitcoin price recognized also huge falls and depreciate by -33.48 % faces to the US dollar; the price fluctuating around 5343.64 US dollars. In African currency markets, The Nigerian NAIRA recognized a small depreciation face to the US dollar and closed the week at 364.00 US dollars. While, the South Africa ZAR depreciated face to the US dollar by 3.56 % and closed last week at 16.23140 US dollars.

The last week main markets prices and variations

Market in Focus: 16 March – 20 March 2020
We have a list of high impact events this week. The publication of the events can leads to a strong movement or a trend for the related currencies. The discussion of the events impacts will be done within the daily FOREX report.

The publications that have a very significant theoretic impact are:

• USD: The retail Sales released by the US Census Bureau measures the total receipts of retail stores. Monthly percent changes reflect the rate of changes of such sales. ” Tuesday”.
• USD: JOLTS Job Openings is a survey done by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics to help measure job vacancies. It collects data from employers including retailers, manufacturers and different offices each month. ”Tuesday”.
• CAD: Consumer Price Index Core is released by the Bank of Canada. “Core” CPI excludes fruits, vegetables, gasoline, fuel oil, natural gas, mortgage interest, intercity transportation, and tobacco products. “Wednesday”.
• USD: FOMC Press Conference; The press conference is about an hour long and has 2 parts – first a prepared statement is read, then the conference is open to press questions. The questions often lead to unscripted answers that create heavy market volatility.” Wednesday”.
• JPY: Kuroda, BoJ’s governor, will give a press conference in order to communicate with investors regarding monetary policy. ”Thursday”.
• USD: The Initial Jobless Claims released by the US Department of Labor is a measure of the number of people filing first-time claims for state unemployment insurance. ”Thursday”.
• CAD: The Retail Sales released by the Statistics Canada is a monthly data that shows all goods sold by retailers based on a sampling of retail stores of different types and sizes. ”Friday”.
• USD: The Existing Home Sales, released by the National Association of Realtors provide an estimated value of housing market conditions.” Friday”.