Major indexes like the S&P 500, Dow Jones and NYSE lost a few percentage points today, while the global cryptocurrency market capitalization lost 2.5% in 24 hours, falling just above the $1.1 trillion range. Precious metals, on the other hand, traded higher as US President Joe Biden’s administration declared the monkeypox virus a public health emergency in the United States.
Tensions between China and Taiwan and reports of the monkeypox virus are causing stock and cryptocurrency prices to fluctuate, while precious metals markets are rising on demand for safe havens.
Stock and cryptocurrency traders faced headwinds on August 4, the day after U.S. Representative from California Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan for a meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. Global markets saw some swings ahead of the US diplomat’s visit to Taipei and during Wednesday’s visit as well.
Stocks and precious metals markets slipped the day before, Aug. 3, as the cryptoeconomy managed to consolidate. US stock markets plunged again on Thursday, the Dow Jones fell 85 points during trading sessions, cryptocurrencies followed the fall in stock markets during the day.
While the Nasdaq was up, the S&P 500, NYSE and many other stocks saw losses during the day. The crypto economy also suffered losses, as all digital assets lost 2.5% in the past 24 hours.
Bitcoin slid 5% Thursday afternoon from $23,548 to $22,395 in value. Ethereum lost 5% today after hitting a 24-hour high of $1,666. Among the top ten players in the cryptocurrency market, solana lost the most, losing 5.6% on the day and polkadot plunged 5.5%.
In Europe, the Ukraine-Russia war is raging and tensions between China and Taiwan have escalated this week. While Asia faces these tensions, Europe faces an energy crisis and a recession. The United States is also facing what many see as a recession, even though the US administration has declared otherwise.
Hours before the close of trading on Thursday, some of Wall Street’s major indexes, like the Dow and S&P 500, rebounded slightly. At the end of the day on Wall Street Thursday, three of the four major indexes were down.
Meanwhile, the gold and silver markets saw some recovery on Thursday as both assets moved higher. The price of an ounce of gold jumped 1.64% while the value of an ounce of silver gained 1.04%. On August 4, Jim Wyckoff of Kitco attributed this rise in precious metals to tensions in Asia when he said that gold and silver prices were higher in the United States “due to demand for safe havens as tensions between China, Taiwan and the United States escalated this week“.
Separately, on Thursday, reports detail that the United States has officially declared the monkeypox virus a public health emergency. Washington Post (WP) reporter Dan Diamond explained that “two officials who spoke on condition of anonymitysaid the Biden administration will declare monkeypox an epidemic and a public health emergency. Dan Diamond writes that the message is believed to have come from White House Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
Following this article, Xavier Becerra ended up declaring monkeypox a public health emergency in the United States, during an afternoon press briefing. “We are ready to step up to the next level in the fight against this virus and ask all Americans to take monkeypox seriously.“, the health secretary told the press.