Tuesday 24th November: Markets cheer vaccine news

content provided with permission by IC MArkets

Global Markets:

  • Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei up 2.50%, Shanghai Composite down 0.34%, Hang Seng up 0.09%, ASX up 1.26%
  • Commodities : Gold at $1826.40 (-0.62%), Silver at $23.46 (-0.75%), Brent Oil at $46.42 (+0.83%), WTI Oil at $43.48 (+0.98%)
  • Rates : US 10-year yield at 0.867, UK 10-year yield at 0.323, Germany 10-year yield at -0.568

News & Data:

  • (USD) Flash Manufacturing PMI 56.7 vs 52.5 expected
  • (GBP) Flash Services PMI 45.8 vs 43.2 expected
  • (GBP) Flash Manufacturing PMI 55.2 vs 50.5 expected
  • (EUR) Flash Services PMI 41.3 vs 42.2 expected
  • (EUR) Flash Manufacturing PMI 53.6 vs 53.2 expected
  • (EUR) German Flash Services PMI 46.2 vs 46.1 expected
  • (EUR) German Flash Manufacturing PMI 57.9 vs 56 expected
  • (EUR) French Flash Manufacturing PMI 49.1 vs 50.2 expected
  • (EUR) French Flash Services PMI 38 vs 39.2 expected
  • UN says Japan violated rights of former Nissan chief Ghosn
  • Trump says recommended GSA administration to start transition protocols

Markets Update:

Asian stock markets, led by Japan, are mostly higher on Tuesday following the positive cues overnight from Wall Street after British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said its coronavirus vaccine candidate being developed in collaboration with Oxford University had an average efficacy of 70 percent.

Investor sentiment also received a boost following news that the Trump administration has officially commenced the transition process to U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, and Biden has chosen former U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen to be Treasury Secretary

Mainland Chinese markets, on the other hand, were lower by the afternoon: the Shanghai composite and the Shenzhen component both dipped 0.3%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was slightly higher. In afternoon trade, the Nikkei 225 jumped 2.5% while the Topix index advanced 2%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.5%.

Oil prices added to last week’s gains as traders anticipated the vaccine news would spur a recovery in energy demand. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, nudged down to 92.406 while the euro gained 0.11% on the day to $1.1853.

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