If you’ve seen any news, or posts on social media across the month of February, you may have heard the terms “Gamestop”, “stock”, “Wall street” and “Robinhood” used in conjunction.

For those unfamiliar with the world of Wall Street trading, it may have seemed too complex a story to understand. For traders, this was a David and Goliath battle that could have some long-term implications for the future of Wall Street. 

All thanks to a social media network, a broker, and some short stocks. If you’ve completely missed the headlines, or you’re still confused, we give you a quick roundup of what happened and why it’s so important.

Going into the week ahead, Asian equity markets traded on edge following Friday’s losses on Wall St as participants sold the news on President-elect Biden’s stimulus announcement. Last week saw the President – elect outline his $1.9tln rescue and recovery plan which is set to include $2,000 check payments and a vaccination goal of 100mln shots during his first 100 days in office. Weaker than expected data stateside and a noticeably slower than expected vaccine rollout weighed on markets and led to riskier assets losing ground as the USD held firm and closed the week above 90.50.

Last week saw the greenback attempt to recover from what has been a tumultuous time for the currency in light of the large amount of asset purchases being carried out by the FED. Market participants digested news of a complete ‘blue wave’ after the democrats took control of both the House and the Senate paving the way for Biden and his team as they ramp up efforts to provide more support to businesses and households in the wake of the pandemic. Cases and deaths continue to rise globally despite increasing efforts to improve the speed of the vaccine rollout. To start the week, the DXY is firmer, breaking above 90.25. Conversely, EURUSD trades to multi-week lows after violating 1.2200.

Energy prices are surging, with Brent crude hitting a 10-month high after a 2% rise Australia and China have led the New Year push higher, with 2021 starting in style across the commodity and non-fiat sphere. Losses in Japanese markets ensured a less-than-perfect start, despite a better-than-expected final manufacturing PMI reading of 50. Meanwhile, Chinese stocks gained ground despite the disappointing Caixin manufacturing PMI reading of 53.0 (down from 54.9).

Last week saw the USD continue to slide lower after market participants were reminded of the FED’s dovish stance at their most recent FOMC Conference. The DXY broke 90.00 as the greenback weakened across all major assets and EUR/USD broke above 1.2250.

Cryptoassets took centre stage as BTC/USD broke to new all-time highs and finished the week up over 22%. The surge was also seen across the altcoins as ETHUSD broke above the $650 mark. Going into the week ahead; dollar strength has returned amidst fears of a new Covid-19 strain that has been sighted across the UK and as a result led to tighter restrictions on movement and travel.