• European equities extended yesterday's rally
• Number of US COVID-19 hospitalizations is rising quickly
• Tech stocks remain under pressure
• Number of US COVID-19 hospitalizations is rising quickly
• Tech stocks remain under pressure
European stocks extended yesterday gains after Reuters reported that European Parliament and the EU governments have reached a deal on the EU's 2021-2027 budget and recovery package. Meanwhile COVID-19 death toll is approaching 300k and virus continues to spread across the continent. Moreover, it turned out that Pfizer Inc's (PFE.US) potential effective new vaccine is not expected to be generally available before 2021 and health systems around the world will have to cope with the winter months unaided. During today's session DAX 30 rose 0.54%, CAC 40 added 1.55% and FFTSE 100 finished 1.74% higher.
Meanwhile US indices are trading mixed during today's session. Dow Jones rose 0.7%, S&P 500 is trading slightly higher, while Nasdaq fell over 1.0 % as investors are concerned about the health of the tech sector and therefore moved into stocks which are more likely to benefit from the economic recovery. Amazon stock was down more than 3% as the company is facing an antitrust charges from the European Commission. Also other tech-giants like Facebook, Alphabet and Microsoft Corp, which have flourished during the pandemic, extended yesterday's losses. Apple stock moved slightly higher ahead of an event later in the day where it is expected to unveil new Mac computers using its own in-house processor chips. Also investors hope for more details regarding MacOS Big Sur, the latest version of the MacOS operating system, which is currently in beta and hasn’t been released to the public yet. Meanwhile number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the US surpassed 59K, which is the highest number since July.
WTI oil futures and the international benchmark Brent contract both rose over 2.0%. Recent comments from Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, who said that OPEC+ could tweak their supply cut pact if demand slumps before the vaccine is available lifted market sentiment. Traders now await the API report due later in the day. Elsewhere, gold futures rose over 1.0% around $ 1,882 / oz, while silver gained 1.3%.
GBPUSD – pair broke above the local resistance at 1.3175 and touched 1.326 level on Tuesday for the first time since September 6th. If the current sentiment prevails, the upward move could be extended to the 1.3474 resistance level. Source: xStation5
