LONDON (Reuters) -Wall Street was set to open higher and world stocks advanced towards recent records on Wednesday, with investors hoping for a strong economic recovery next year also pushing the safe haven dollar into the its lowest level since April 2018.
Europe’s main markets were heading for a sixth consecutive earnings session as the AstraZeneca and Oxford University coronavirus vaccine became the second to be approved by Britain, helping the FTSE 100 to add 0.1 %, although it was below the maximum levels of nine months of the previous day.
S&P 500 futures were up 0.34% after US stocks fell from an intraday record on Tuesday.
The belief that global monetary authorities will continue to inject liquidity into the banking system has sustained riskier assets in recent weeks.
“Familiar themes are still at stake,” said Ned Rumpeltin, European director of foreign exchange strategy at TD Securities. “Today is a day where we have been and where we are.”
The U.S. Senate is due to hold a procedural vote on Wednesday that could pave the way for Congress to overturn US President Donald Trump’s veto of a major defense bill.
Also on Wednesday, data from the Chicago Purchasing Managers’ Index for December at 14:45 GMT is expected to read 57, according to a Reuters poll, compared to 58.2 last month.
A new, more communicable variant of the virus is spreading rapidly, including to the United States, but countries in the European Union have also started launching the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine this week.
“The prospect of faster and more widespread inoculation will be a shot of confidence for markets as the fight against COVID-19 intensifies,” said Janet Mui, director of investments at wealth manager Brewin Dolphin.
The MSCI global stock index rose 0.25%, staying close to Tuesday’s record highs.
The index has risen 14% this year and almost 70% from March lows, driven by trillions of dollars in global economic stimulus and expectations that coronavirus vaccines will reopen blocked economies.
TRADE AGREEMENT
Away from concerns about the virus, British lawmakers were expected to vote on the trade agreement between the UK and the EU on Wednesday, the day before the Brexit transition agreement ended.
The Asia-Pacific stock index MSCI, excluding Japan, rose 1.4% to a record high, led by gains in Chinese stocks and bringing its gains this year to 19%.
Japan’s Nikkei stock average lost 0.45%, however, on its last day of trading in 2020, after jumping to a 30-year high on Tuesday. [.T]
In the foreign exchange markets, the dollar’s weakness continued. It fell again on Wednesday, the first day that the settlement of the negotiations will take place in 2021.
The US dollar index fell 0.3% to its lowest value since April 2018. The euro reached its highest value since 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 was up 0.8% above $ 1.36.
Bitcoin jumped to a record high of $ 28,599.99, after the digital currency nearly quadrupled in value this year amid rising interest from larger investors.
Yield on German 10-year bonds [DE10YT=RR] – which move inversely to the price – rose to -0.56%.
Oil gained ground with the dollar’s devaluation, US crude oil inventories fell and Britain approved a second coronavirus vaccine, although it was set to end the year about 20% lower. [O/R]
US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 0.94% to $ 48.45 a barrel [O/R]. Gold remained stable at $ 1,878 an ounce. [GOL/]