This week, the global markets stabilized following the panic that ensued following the release of inflation data from the United States. The US stock market has had five days of straight gains despite data showing that inflation was returning. The Dow, S&P,and the Nasdaq have each gained by more than five percent.

As the stocks markets were rising, so was the cryptocurrencies market which was boosted by a series of positive news. Bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies gained by more than 30% each. The gains came following a meeting between the SEC, CFTC, and senators. In the meeting, the two regulatory bodies promised to introduce regulations to govern the currencies. This was different from their global counterparts who had promised to ban the currencies.

Ripple had a series of positive news. A large remittance company in the United Arab Emirates started testing the platform. The company operates in more than 140 countries and processes millions of dollars every day. In the same week, Western Union announced that it would start testing the platform for international transfers. This was not the first time the company was announcing the new moves to test Ripple.

Crude oil had some major move this week. At the beginning, traders exited their long positions following the fears that the US oil production was ramping up. This changed on Wednesday when the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released the weekly inventory numbers that showed reduced inventories in the United States. Partly, this was expected because oil refineries tend to go for maintenance during this time. WTI and Brent were up by more than 30 bps.

This week, traders focused highly on inflation from the United Kingdom and the United States. On Tuesday, the Office of National Statistics released data showing inflation in the UK rose by 3.0% which was a point higher than the estimates of 2.9%. This was a surprise also. Many traders, and possibly the Bank of England may be forced to hike sooner.

On Wednesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the inflation data which was higher than the analysts forecast. As you recall, the recent market sell-off was as a result of the anticipation of soaring inflation from the investors. This time however, traders were little moved as US stocks ended the day higher. The dollar is currently lower than its global peers following fears of the budget deficit. As you recall, this week, Trump started his infrastructure campaign which is expected it may raise the country’s deficit. As a result, the treasury yields continued to rise as doubts about the economy mounted.

This week, we also received employment data from Australia that beat analysts estimates. In January, the economy added more than 16,000 jobs above the estimated 13K. The unemployment rate remained unchanged. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is now expected to start raising rates later this year. The Australia dollar is currently lower the dollar.

In Japan, the economy continued going up. The QoQ GDP numbers came at 0.5% against the expected 0.9%. Still, investors were pleased with the economy, which has continued to strengthen for months. The Yen is significantly higher than the dollar.