1) Wall Street closes higher in volatile session
Wall Street closed higher in a volatile session on Monday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded 1,115 points of loss at one point before bouncing back prior to the Fed’s two-day meeting to begin on Tuesday. Dow Jones closed 0.29% higher on Monday at 34,364.50 points. S&P 500 gained 0.28% and Nasdaq rose 0.63%.
2) Bitcoin bounces back after hitting 6-month low
Bitcoin fell to its lowest point since July 2020 at $32,982.11 in a similar movement as Wall Street in the early session on Monday. However, the largest cryptocurrency made a comeback to close more than 5% higher at $37,183.25 then lowered its gain to around 1.20% on Tuesday morning, trading at $36,749.60.
3) WHO warns of more mutations of Covid-19
As the spread of Covid-19 remains at a faster pace, the conditions are ripe for the virus to mutate into more new variants, the World Health Organization’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Monday.
“It is dangerous to assume that omicron will be the last variant or that we’re in the endgame,” said Tedros. “On the contrary, globally the conditions are ideal for more variants to emerge. To change the course of the pandemic, we must change the conditions that are driving it.”
4) Tension rises at Ukrainian border with each party strengthening troops
NATO has strengthened its troops with ships and fighter jets at Eastern Europe to face the Russian army at the Ukrainian border. Meanwhile, the U.S. has more than 8,500 troops on alert if the tension rises to its breaking point.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday in a reiteration of his warning against a Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying that any aggressive interference from Russia would be met with a severe response.
