Spoken too soon in my blog last week, I thought that it was an opportunity to buy on dips after a terrible start to the year. But the financial markets continued on its bloodbath this week. All markets were down as technical levels melt like butter within the last 24 hours after holding on for a week above key chart points.
There was so much bad news coming in one after another that there was no respite for any recoveries. First, we had Biden talking at his 1-year anniversary mark and encouraging Russia to invade Ukraine. Omicron news continues to see heightened cases as it has not reached its peak yet in many countries. Then Russia threatens to ban cryptos. An edgy market saw higher oil prices when drones attacked oil assets in UAE. Netflix and Peloton also announced weak results and led the price falls.
Everything suddenly looked gloomier. Europe and USA may retaliate against Russia if it attacks Ukraine with more sanctions. If they target and close Russia’s oil pipeline to the West, that will make oil markets even more nervous and prices higher…
The straw that broke the camel’s back for cryptos was the liquidation of highly leveraged positions when key BTC (40k) and ETH (3k) price chart levels were breached. It couldn’t have been a worst Friday ending to the week as we all have to lick our wounds into the weekend and hope for the best next week. Though cryptos are 24/7, the exchanges are probably going to take some time to assess their risk exposure and may try not to liquidate into the weekend thin market conditions.
I don’t think that the correction is done yet as it has extended into the 2nd week. Weak positions still have to be purged from the systems which in turn may drive prices lower. It was across all asset classes. The only things that moved up were oil prices and interest rate expectations. It is going to be an ugly Jan 2022 start to the new year.
Now to a lighter moment, the Laurel and Hardy show of the week. We have had comedy twins Novak and Boris entertaining us. Both showed us the meaning and truism of the Spiderman quote: “With great powers come great responsibilities”.
Tennis superstar Novak became a villain within a matter of weeks. He managed to dig a deeper hole in Australia even as he was trying to remain in the tournament. Firstly, his team managed to get an exemption for him as he was not vaccinated. Then holes started to appear in his story before he had to do a u-turn. He originally stated that he just had Covid and did not travel to other countries in the past 14 days so that he could get the exemption.
Then it was revealed that he had gone to Spain while he tested positive and even attended events without wearing a mask. There were photos of him posing with children without a mask while having Covid. This reckless behaviour was not new to him. He organized a tennis tournament in 2020 without Covid measures in place and it became a super spreader event for everyone who attended.
He is against taking the vaccination but his careless attitude created an uproar for Australians. His second appeal to remain failed and he was forced to leave the country immediately, even as 70% of the Australian citizens polled believed it was correct to kick him out of the country.
A famous person like him should know better to hold himself to a higher standard of integrity and oversight. Even if he does not want to take the vaccine, he should not lie his way through it and endanger other people with his stupid actions. Rules are made to be followed and if you do not respect the country’s process, then you have no right to stay there. Blaming your assistant for wrong application data does not cut it.
Boris was the other bozo that made his career by acting like a clumsy uncle with dishevelled hair to disguise his political manoeuvres. He supported Brexit and its lies to get a job that no one wants to do. His cavalier attitude of avoiding his own rules shows an “I’m holier than thou” attitude and a middle finger to everyone.
How can you hold a group party for up to 40 people (“Bring Your Own Booze” BYO) even as you lock down the country to stop Covid? Then when confronted, he claimed that he was not aware that it was illegal to have group gatherings? The leader is where the buck stops and claiming ignorance on a blatant abuse is inexcusable. These events were not one-offs. It even happened again a day after Queen Elizabeth’s husband died – they had another party.
What sort of credibility do you have after that? One set of rules for the commoners and another for the elites like yourself? Can the trust of the citizens be earned back again? People were not allowed to visit their dying parents at the peak of Covid and there you were having booze parties to destress?
Do we now get the worrying feeling that he is trying to deflect the heat with his latest move to bring the UK back to normalcy by stopping all Covid restrictions so soon after the Omicron wave?? Is this backed by science or are you politically desperate now and grasping at straws? Citizen lives are at stake here if you are wrong.
Even if it was based on science as Boris claims, his record of white lies is casting doubts on his motive for opening up. My son is studying in the UK and he says people have stopped wearing masks for a few months already. We have to remind him again to be cautious.
Boris is losing support and being asked to quit by fellow politicians. He is a fighter and will continue to dig his heels in. His job is so shitty with Brexit and Covid that I think no one in his right mind would want it. That ironically may be his only saving grace now.
Leave a Reply