Markets Weekly Recap

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Key Takeaways

• Stocks advance in the first half of the week but later lose their momentum
• Bitcoin and digital coins erase their early-week gains and finish the week in the red

Wall Street equities pushed to record highs, European bourses wavered, and Bitcoin surged above the $50,000 threshold before sliding back under. The past week brought a flurry of events and developments in the financial markets.

Investors across asset classes such as equities, commodities, currencies, and digital assets were largely optimistic over the prospects for growth earlier in the week. Stocks on both sides of the Atlantic kicked off the weekly trading on a strong note.

On Monday, the Nasdaq Composite surged to a new record high as US regulators gave full approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. The S&P500 spiked to an intraday all-time high.

Over the next two days, all three major US stock indexes powered to higher grounds, with the tech-centered Nasdaq Composite and the broader S&P500 notching back-to-back record closings.

Thursday’s trading, however, was largely depressed and stocks across the board finished the day in the red with the S&P500 and the Nasdaq Composite falling from their records. This week’s stock trading was fairly quiet and floating around the flat line as traders and investors reassessed their risk appetite while stocks hovered near all-time highs.

The Precious Metal Largely Pares Losses on Friday

As the week unfolded, the euro advanced against the weaker US dollar. The EUR/USD on Monday climbed from a 10-month low near 1.1660 and moved to an intraday weekly high of 1.1778 on Wednesday.

Gold was sliding throughout most of the week. The precious metal climbed significantly on Monday, adding more than $25, or nearly 1.5%, to $1,806 per troy ounce. Later in the week, the precious metal slipped but pared most of the losses on Friday when gold prices rose above the $1,800 mark.

In cryptocurrency action, bitcoin blew past $50,000 on Monday for the first time in three months. The original cryptocurrency reached a session high of $50,500 per coin on Monday as a broader move higher lifted major digital currencies.

Bitcoin and other digital tokens, however, went through a selloff near the end of the week. The leading crypto asset slipped almost 4% on Thursday as crypto market participants could not sustain the upside swing that powered the leading coins over the past few weeks.