20.07.202113:23 Forex Analysis & Reviews: Stocks continued to fall amid COVID-19 and escalating tensions between US and China

Stocks continued to fall on Monday, after investors rushed into safe haven assets amid increasing coronavirus infections due to the delta strain. Escalating tensions between US and China contributed as well, so S&P 500 closed 2.12% lower.

Commodity, financial and industrial stocks posted huge losses, while Airlines and cruise operators collapsed amid worries on further travel restrictions. All this caused the CBOE volatility index (VIX) to skyrocket

Meanwhile, European stocks fell the hardest in 2021, after massive sell offs in the market.

With regards to 10-year bond yields, a dip to the lowest level was observed recently. In turn, dollar rose against other world currencies such as yen and franc.

Geopolitical unrest also surfaced on Monday after the United States, Britain and their allies said the Chinese government was the mastermind behind a string of ransomware, data theft and cyber espionage against public and private organizations, including a massive Microsoft Exchange hack earlier this year.

Other important events for this week are:

- minutes of the meeting of the Reserve Bank of Australia (Tuesday);

- policy decisions of the European Central Bank (Thursday);

- policy decisions of the Bank of Indonesia (Thursday);

- data on US home sales (Thursday);

- Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo (Friday).