Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg
Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg
The dollar continued to fall, weakening to a two-and-a-half-year low. S&P 500 index futures rose, while most Asian equities advanced in lower trading on the last day of 2020.
Shares rose in Hong Kong and China. They fell in Australia. The markets of Japan and South Korea are closed. S&P 500 futures rose after US equities rose earlier, outpacing small-cap stocks. Volumes were light during the holiday week, with S&P 500 shares trading about 25% below the 30-day average. Bitcoin expanded its record rally to exceed $ 29,000 before retiring.
Investors have pushed risky assets, including equities, to high valuations this year with expectations that widespread vaccine distribution in 2021 will revive economic growth and increase corporate profits amid unprecedented stimulus. The MSCI Global Equity Index will end the year at a record high or near a record high, having risen by around 14% in 2020 after rising by almost 68% since its March low.
“Investors continue to weigh stimulus hopes against the evolution of the negative pandemic,” Tom Essaye, a former Merrill Lynch trader who founded the newsletter The Sevens Report, wrote to clients. “Markets have had an aggressive price with a lot of positive resolution for these events (and much more) in 2021.”
At the forefront of coronavirus, the new strain of Covid-19 first identified in the UK is emerging in other parts of the world. The highly transmissible variant has been found in California and a second possible case is being investigated in Colorado. Two people in Singapore may also have it. Cases coveted in New York City are approaching an average seven-day positivity rate of 8%, the highest in more than seven months. California on Tuesday reported 432 deaths from the virus, setting a daily record. The AstraZeneca Plc-Oxford University vaccine was authorized for use in the UK, adding a self-produced weapon to help curb the pandemic.
Elsewhere, the Bloomberg dollar indicator fell to its lowest level since April 2018, as traders positioned currency positions before the end of the year amid fine fluidity. The pound rose after the British Parliament approved Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s post-Brexit trade deal.
A year after the first signs of a deadly virus appeared in Wuhan, China, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a year-end speech that there is “light in the world. end of the tunnel “.
Here are some key events:
- Initial U.S. unemployment claims figures are released Thursday.
- Most global stock markets close on Friday for New Year’s Eve.
These are the main movements in the markets:
Stocks
- S&P 500 index futures rose 0.1% at 12:48 p.m. in Sydney. The S&P 500 index gained 0.1%.
- The Australian S & P / ASX 200 index fell 0.6%.
- Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.6%.
- The Shanghai Composite Index gained 1%.
Coins
- The yen was at 103.15 per dollar.
- The offshore yuan was trading at $ 6,5041 per dollar.
- The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%.
- The euro was $ 1,2303.
- The British pound stood at $ 1.3643, up 0.1%.
Good
- The ten-year Treasury yield fell one basis point to 0.92% on Wednesday. They won’t change until London opens due to the holidays in Tokyo.
- Australia’s ten-year bond yield fell to 0.97%.
Commodities
- West Texas crude oil fell 0.3% to $ 48.26 a barrel.
- Gold remained stable at $ 1,895.89 an ounce.