Think Daily 06 December 2021

In Friday’s trading session in the local markets, the Top 40 closed the day down by 0.39%. The Resources 10 sector went down by 1.56%, the Financial 15 went up by 0.66%, the Industrial 25 went up by 0.13% and lastly the South African Listed Property index up by 1.11%. The Rand traded at R16.11 against the United States Dollar, R21.32 against the Great British pound, and R18.22 against the Euro. In the local markets, the rand was trading around R16.00 against the greenback, trying to recover from a recent slump that sent the currency to an over one-year low of R16.30 hit at the end of November. Elsewhere, Bitcoin plunged on Saturday and the token has now declined more than 20% from the all-time high of more than $69,000 seen on November 10.  



Figure 1: Bitcoin spot price
On the commodities front, the Brent Crude oil is trading at $71.38 a barrel and WTI Crude oil is trading at $67.79 a barrel. Gold Spot price is currently trading at $1783.30, Platinum Spot is now trading at $939.11 and lastly, Palladium Spot price is at $1805.41.  State oil producer Saudi Aramco raised official selling prices for all crude grades sold to key markets Asia and US for a second straight month in January, the company announced on Sunday. The price hikes were implemented despite a decision by the OPEC+ last week to continue increasing supplies by 400,000 barrels per day in January. 
Across the globe, the S&P 500 closed the day down 0.84%, Dow Jones closed down 0.17% and the Nasdaq had a 1.92% dip. The FTSE 100 closed flat and the DAX was down 0.07% and CAC40 was down 0.1%. In the Asian markets, the Nikkei 225 is down 0.36% and the Hang Seng is currently down 1.84%. Meanwhile, the IMF urged the Federal Reserve on Friday to tighten monetary policy at a faster pace in light of rising inflation risks, citing the US’ strong economic position compared with other developed countries. Elsewhere, the Omicron variant has now been detected in at least 15 states, CDC said on Sunday.