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Crude oil prices and precious metals registered solid gains while global stocks ended modestly higher last week. Attention this week will be on planned central bank meetings. Major central banks, such as the Reserve Bank of Australia and Bank of Canada, are to hold monetary policy meetings this week. The other important economic events to watch are the ISM services PMI, Eurozone GDP and German CPI.

Global markets ended mixed on Friday after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged the possibility that the Fed might have to hike interest rates again during his speech at the Jackson Hole conference. Moving ahead this week, the most important thing in the market is undoubtedly the announcement of Friday’s US employment report.

Vaccine stocks regained momentum nowadays after the new variants of covid EG.5.1, known as "Eris" and XBB.1.16.6 are emerging in the U.S. The WHO further warns that the new variant "may cause an increase in the incidence of cases and become dominant in some countries or even globally."

Shares of California-based Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ: ZM) rose 8% in after-hours trading on Monday after the company reported upbeat results for its second quarter. Zoom revealed several new artificial intelligence (AI) innovations and plans to continue investing in AI technology to further support its customers’ operations.

This week economic weakness in China and renewed Fed tightening concerns continue to hang over markets and the bulk of PMI data will be released on Wednesday. On the other hand, the other key event for the market this week Jackson Hole symposium.