Even after Friday’s drop, the Dow ended 12.8 percent higher, its best week since 1938 and its strongest three-day performance since 1931 due to the stimulus package law to encourage the US business activities and the US households. While the number of coronavirus cases in the US climbed leading the country to surpassed China and Italy as the country with the most coronavirus cases. The number of US cases surpassed 100,000, and the death toll exceeded 1500.

China stocks rose on Friday to end the week higher, boosted by hopes of more stimulus to shield the world’s second-largest economy from the coronavirus pandemic.

European shares closed higher by 10.93 percent supported by the US package to encourage economic activities. Despite the EU lawmakers failed to agree on a coronavirus rescue package and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced he had been infected. Most of the European countries are practically under lockdown due to the virus, a recession appears imminent. Investors are waiting for the economic rescue package and the resolution of the dispute between the ailing south and the fiscally conservative north.

Stephen Innes, the chief market strategist at financial services firm AxiCorp, wrote in a note: ‘There was no specific new coordinated action to ramp up the fiscal response to the crisis and, in particular, no agreement around ‘corona bonds’.’

Oil and gas stocks declined last week by -6.84 percent and closed at the price of 21.8 USD higher than the 24-year low. Crude prices were already pressured by concerns explained by the decline of the global demand and rivalry between producers especially Saudia Arabia and Russia.

Many economists suggested that the global economy was already in recession due to the negative impact of coronavirus outbreak leading to increasing worries and market volatilities as occurred in the crude oil
market.

The EUR/USD increased by 4.18 percent and closing last week at 1.11400, showing a weakened US dollar faces to the Euro following the surge of the coronavirus cases in the USA.

The selling pressure surrounding the major cryptocurrencies was limited last week leading Bitcoin (BTC/USD) to have a tight positive appreciation by 0.74 percent and fluctuating around $ 5882.7.

In African currency markets, The Nigerian NAIRA recognized small depreciation faces to the US dollar and closed the week at 365.00 US dollars. The South Africa ZAR declined faces to the US dollar by 0.34
percent and closed last week at 17.61990 US dollars.

The last week main markets prices and variations

Market in Focus: 30 March – 03 April 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:

• EUR: HICP is an index of consumer prices calculated and published by Destatis, the Statistical Office of the European Union, on the basis of a statistical methodology that has been harmonized across all EU member states. “Monday”.
• GBP: The Gross Domestic Product released by the National Statistics is a measure of the total value of all goods and services produced by the UK. ”Tuesday”.
• EUR: The Euro Zone CPI released by the Eurostat captures the changes in the price of goods and services. ”Tuesday”.
• USD: The Employment Change released by the Automatic Data Processing, Inc, Inc is a measure of the change in the number of employed people in the US. ”Wednesday”.
• USD: The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Manufacturing Index shows business conditions in the US manufacturing sector It is a significant indicator of the overall economic condition in US. ”Wednesday”.
• USD: The Trade Balance released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census Bureau is a balance between exports and imports of total goods and services. ”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”.
• USD: The nonfarm payrolls released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics presents the number of new jobs created during the previous month, in all non-agricultural business.” Friday”.
• USD: The Average Hourly Earning released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics is a significant indicator of labor cost inflation and of the tightness of labor markets.” Friday”.
• USD: The Unemployment Rate released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics is a percentage that surges from dividing the number of unemployed workers by the total civilian labor force.” Friday”.
• USD: The ISM Non-Manufacturing Index released by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) shows business conditions in the US non-manufacturing sector.” Friday”.