Morning wrap (20.01.2021)

• Indices from Wall Street finished yesterday's trading higher. S&P 500 closed 0.81% higher, Nasdaq gained 1.53% and Dow Jones added 0.38%. Russell 2000 gained 1.32%

• Stocks in Asia traded mostly higher today. S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.4%, Kospi added 0.7% and indices from China moved higher. Nikkei dropped almost 0.4%

• DAX futures point to more or less flat opening of the European session

• Trump pardoned over 140 persons during his final day in the office, including some former aides. However, he did not pardon himself or his family members as it was rumoured

• Giuseppe Conte won confidence vote in Senate

• According to Bloomberg report, ECB is using bond strategy aimed at limiting yield spreads between strongest and weakest economies in the bloc

• Foreign direct investments in China have hit a record $144.37 billion in 2020 (+4.7%)

• Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, has been spotted on video call after months of being out of public view

• Netflix added 8.5 million users in Q4 2020 (exp. +6 million). EPS at $1.19 was weaker than $1.36 expected while revenue at $6.64 billion was in-line with estimates. Company added 37 million subscribers throughout full-2020

• Bitcoin trades slightly above $35,000

• Precious metals and oil trade higher. Agricultural commodities underperform

• AUD and NZD are the best performing major currencies while USD and CHF lag the most

Almost 590 thousand new coronavirus cases were reported yesterday. Source: worldometers, XTB