Volatility remains elevated on Thursday

US equities dropped sharply yesterday, with the technology Nasdaq 100 index falling to the lowest level in a month, while the Dow Jones index slid to two-month lows, undermined by the Boeing stock.

On the other hand, EU indices held firmly, with the DAX index defending the critical support of 15,000 EUR and jumping some 300 EUR off it.  

The new omicron variant is becoming the dominant strain in South Africa as the number of new cases doubled from Tuesday to Wednesday. Omicron was confirmed in 75% of the new cases. 

However, Australia's Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said there was no evidence to suggest it was more dangerous than the Delta variant.

The macro calendar is relatively empty today, offering only the usual Thursday's jobless claims, which are expected to deteriorate notably. 

Elsewhere, the USD retreated slightly today, but the EURUSD pair still trades below the critical resistance of descending trend line, currently near 1.1350. A break above that level could send the euro further higher and stop the medium-term downtrend. 

Precious metals plummeted again, silver dropped toward 22 USD, the lowest in two months, while gold is falling toward 1,750 USD as traders are betting that the Fed will speed up the tapering process. The market now expects the central bank to start hiking rates in June.