LONDON (Reuters) -Wall Street was scheduled to open further and global stocks advanced to recent record highs on Wednesday, with investors hoping for a strong economic recovery next year that will also push the safe haven dollar to a close low since April 2018.
Major European markets were heading for a sixth straight earnings session, as the AstraZeneca and Oxford University coronavirus vaccine became the second approved by Britain, helping the FTSE 100 add a 0.1%, although it fell below the highs of the previous nine days.
S&P 500 futures rose 0.34% after US stocks fell above the intraday record high on Tuesday.
The belief that world monetary authorities will continue to pump liquidity into the banking system has been the basis of the riskiest assets in recent weeks.
“There are still known issues at stake,” said Ned Rumpeltin, head of European currency strategy at TD Securities. “Today is a very important day where we have been and where we are.”
The U.S. Senate was due to hold a procedural vote Wednesday that could pave the way for Congress to overturn U.S. President Donald Trump’s veto of a key defense bill.
Also on Wednesday, data from the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index for December at 1445 GMT is expected to give a reading of 57, according to a Reuters poll, up from 58.2 last month.
A new, more transmissible variant of the virus is spreading rapidly, even in the United States, but European Union countries have also begun rolling out the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine this week.
“The prospect of faster and more widespread inoculation will be a trait of confidence in the markets as the COVID-19 struggle intensifies,” said Janet Mui, investment director of wealth manager Brewin Dolphin.
MSCI’s global stock index rose 0.25%, to the minimum distance from record highs set on Tuesday.
The index has risen 14% this year and nearly 70% from its March lows, driven by trillions of dollars in global economic stimulus and expectations that coronavirus vaccines will reopen closed economies.
TRADE OFFER
Far from worrying about the virus, British lawmakers are expected to vote on the UK-EU trade deal later Wednesday, a day before a Brexit transition deal expires.
The MSCI indicator for Asia-Pacific equities, excluding Japan, rose 1.4% to a record high, led by gains in Chinese equities and which increased its gain this year to 19 %.
The Japanese average of Nikkei shares lost 0.45%, however, on the last trading day of 2020 after jumping to a 30-year high on Tuesday. [.T]
In foreign exchange markets, the weakness of the dollar continued. It fell again on Wednesday, the first day where the liquidation of trades will take place in 2021.
The US dollar index fell 0.3% to its lowest level since April 2018. The euro peaked in April 2018, close to $ 1.23.
The Australian dollar rose 0.9% to $ 0.7673, a two-and-a-half-year high. The pound sterling rose 0.8% above $ 1.36.
Bitcoin jumped to a record $ 28,599.99, after the digital currency nearly quadrupled in value this year amid rising interest from larger investors.
Yields on 10-year German bonds [DE10YT=RR] – moving inversely to the price – up to -0.56%.
Oil gained ground as the dollar weakened, U.S. crude inventories declined and Britain approved a second coronavirus vaccine, although it is expected to end 20% less by the end of the year. . [O/R]
West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures rose 0.94% to $ 48.45 a barrel [O/R]. Gold remained stable at $ 1,878 an ounce. [GOL/]