Abstract:Global markets have been substantially risk-off since the Bank of England (BOE) highlighted concerns about double-digit inflation and the resulting economic issues on Thursday.

As of Thursday, Global markets turned heavily risk-off late after the Bank of England (BOE) raised concerns of double-digit inflation and economic challenges emanating from the same. The headlines were not only detrimental to the Sterling but also renewed fears that the prices pressures will push Fed toward faster rate hikes, which in turn allowed the greenback to reverse the post-Fed losses.
The risk-aversion wave drowned Wall Street and negatively affected the prices of gold, as well as Antipodeans. Brent oil, however, managed to stay firmer amid headlines from OPEC+ and Europe. Cryptocurrencies also plummeted as traders leave the riskier assets in search of the US dollar.
The condition remained downbeat during early Friday with eyes on the monthly jobs report from the US and Canada, as well as any confirmations on how inflation will push the Fed towards more than 50 bps of rate hikes.
Below are the list of major assets latest performances:
• Brent oil prints three-day uptrend around $111.00.
• Gold extends the previous days losses below $1,900.
• USD Index stays firmer around 103.60 after refreshing two decade high.
• FTSE 100 print mild losses while DAX and EUROSTOXX50 drop around 1.2% each.
• Dow Jones and S&P 500 slumped 3.12% and 3.56% respectively while Nasdaq nosdived almost 5.0%.
• BTCUSD and ETHUSD both remain pressured around the lowest levels since February, close to $36,000 and $2,700 in that order by the press time.
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No, we are not kidding! The rupee has indeed hit this low, from 90 to 95 against the US dollar, the fastest in nearly a decade, highlighting the slump due to rising crude oil prices and global uncertainty from the series of adverse events related to the geopolitical conflict in the Middle East. It just took five months for the rupee to weaken from 90 to 95, the sharpest five-point depreciation since the 2013 taper tantrum. During this period, the rupee declined from 60 to 65 within a month amid concerns over India’s current account deficit and large capital outflows.

While it was a flat day for India’s benchmark stock indices (Sensex & Nifty), there was a sort of recovery for the rupee in the foreign exchange market on May 21, 2026. Giving investors more reasons to enjoy was another bull run for gold, which is touching the 16K threshold for 10 grams. Taking three markets combined, the overall sentiment remains mixed for investors. Here is how the day panned out for investors across these markets.

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