Weekly news summary for April 16 to 22, 2021
Friday, April 16, 2021: Oil Prices Reach One-month High
Oil prices registered a one-month high on Friday, driven by upcoming weekly inventory data, and as US sanctions against Russia seemed less severe than expected, while repeated missile attacks by rebels in Yemen at Saudi Arabia were unable to disrupt oil flows.
The US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 0.2% to $63.58 per barrel, while the global benchmark Brent crude futures climbed 0.3% to $67.11 per barrel.
Monday, April 19, 2021: Cryptocurrencies Rebound from Weekend Correction
Cryptocurrencies recovered on Monday, following a sharp weekend correction that led Bitcoin to post a 15% drop.
Bitcoin regained about one-third of its losses at 6:30 am ET to $56,500, as rookie traders seemed to have bought the dip, while the Ether also rebounded from weekend losses, although it was still 12% short of last week’s highs.
Tuesday, April 20, 2021: European Stocks Down, Tobacco Shares Slip
European stocks were broadly down on Tuesday, with big-cap tobacco companies including British American Tobacco plc and Imperial Brands plc slipping 5.6% and 5.4%, respectively, as the US administration looks to reduce nicotine level in cigarettes to non-addictive levels.
The Germany’s DAX added 0.1%, but France’s CAC 40 lost 0.6%, the UK’s FTSE 100 shed 0.2%, and the blue-chip Euro Stoxx 50 declined 0.3%.
Wednesday, April 21, 2021: Netflix Subscriber Growth Slows Down in Q1
Netflix Inc.’s net subscription growth ended lower than expected in the first quarter, pushing its shares down more than 10% in after-hours trading on Wednesday.
Netflix said its subscriber base was up 4 million in the three months ended Mar. 31, below analysts’ growth forecasts of 6 million and the nearly 16 million global subscription gain registered in the same quarter of 2020.
Thursday, April 22, 2021: India Hits Highest Single-day Rise in COVID Cases
New daily cases in India were up to 314,835, marking the highest single-day rise globally, as the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and similar increases elsewhere raised new concerns over the health services’ ability to handle the situation.
Hospitals in northern and western India, including New Delhi, have notified the public that they are experiencing an acute shortage of the medical oxygen needed to keep COVID-19 patients alive, while over two-thirds of hospitals were at full capacity, with doctors advising patients to stay at home.
