Easy come, easy go for Bitcoin
Mainstream media is filled with Bitcoin coverage to start the new year, following the surge over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays to a record near $35,000.

The Tokyo metropolitan government has also asked bars and restaurants to close at 8pm local time
This confirms the earlier message by the central government today . Adding to this, Tokyo has asked for schools to remain open while taking precautionary measures. This pretty much sets the stage for the state of emergency announcement later in

USD/JPY trades to its lowest levels since March last year
Looking at the chart, the drop below the 17 December low now leaves little in the way of a push towards testing 102.00 next. The capitulation in the pair back in March last year failed to hold a daily close below the figure level, so that

What a spectacular run
Bitcoin has been the big winner of the holiday season and it just keeps on going. I sat down to write this post when it hit $30,000 and it’s already at $31,000.

Up from $1517.27 at the year end 2019.
The price of gold is ending the year just under the $1900 level. The current price is trading at $1897.93. That is up $3.54 or 0.19%.  The high price today reached $1900.89. The low price extended to $1885.49. 

Nasdaq the big winner in 2020
The S&P and Dow are closing at record levels at the year end.  
The final numbers today are showing:
Some of the big gainers for the year include:

The AUD is the strongest
As 2020 winds to a close, the USD is ending as the weakest with the AUD as the strongest.
The greenback fell nearly -9.8% vs the AUD as Australia was relatively little impacted by coronavirus. The rise in commodity prices helped the AUD currency as well.  The USD had bouts of flows

Everyone goes back to zero
2020 was a year of incredible opportunities in financial markets but the FX market was more of a sideshow than the main participant.

Previous record was Tuesday at 53,275
The daily deaths are approaching the April peak of 1172.
I’m sympathetic to the argument that the new variant is more transmissible. Otherwise, it’s very difficult to explain this spike despite the December lockdown. Other countries where they don’t have this variant have seen a decline or slower growth.

GBP/USD trade to its highest levels since May 2018 but just be mindful that thin liquidity conditions are still prevailing this week
The push higher in the past few sessions owes more to do with the dollar slipping up rather than the pound surging, with cable now trading to its highest levels since May 2018 at