Market participants mostly ignored the weak Friday data; the conclusion can be made based on the continued growth of currencies at the beginning of this week.
The muted reaction to Friday's releases points to investor optimism about the economy and trading opportunities, with EURUSD, USDCAD, AUDUSD, NZDUSD benefiting the most. Commodities rose significantly in price. The UK and the Eurozone are just beginning to ease restrictions, while most of Canada is still quarantined.
Bitcoin rose from a three-month low on Monday in a volatile session as investors first sold and then bought cryptocurrencies following Tesla boss Elon Musk's tweets about the automaker's bitcoin assets.
In his latest tweet, Musk said that "Tesla did not sell bitcoins". This clarification comes after his tweets over the weekend in which he hinted that Tesla is considering or may have already sold some of its huge assets.
Musk has stimulated the cryptocurrency markets with his enthusiasm, but recently he has cooled off towards bitcoin in favor of its parody - dogecoin.
Last Wednesday, Musk said that Tesla will stop accepting bitcoin as payment due to environmental concerns about the use of energy to process transactions. Defending the decision on Sunday, he suggested that Tesla may have sold its own assets.
As a result of the most powerful verbal interventions, the volatility of bitcoin makes it the most unpredictable cryptocurrency asset.
The US consumer price index has reached 4.2% in the past 12 months, the highest level since September 2008. This was announced on Wednesday by the Department of Labor of the country. Experts predicted that this level of inflation will reach 3.6%.
Consumer prices in April increased by 0.8% compared to March. Experts expected an increase of 0.2%. In their opinion, the current figure is caused by growing demand as the spread of the coronavirus weakens.
Excluding food and energy prices, the core consumer price index rose 0.9% from March, the highest since 1982.
The pace of inflation growth has increased sharply after several years of staying at an unusually low level, mainly due to the recovery of the US economy. Experts attribute the current situation to the fact that enterprises cannot keep up with demand.
The Federal Reserve System (Fed) of the United States, which serves as the country's central bank, believes that the current increase in inflation is temporary.
In the nearest future there is nothing threatening for risky assets. We have another busy week ahead of us, which includes releases on Japan's first quarter GDP, UK and Australian labor markets, UK and Canadian inflation, fresh FOMC minutes, UK, Canadian and Australian retail sales data, and Eurozone and UK business activity for May. Inflationary pressures are increasing everywhere, and the upcoming releases should reflect this.