LONDON (Reuters) – Wall Street was expected to open more and global stocks to move to record highs on Wednesday, with investors hoping for a strong economic recovery next year pushing the dollar to a record low in April 2018.
Major European markets were heading for a sixth straight earnings session, as AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s coronavirus vaccine became the second to be approved by the UK, helping the FTSE 100 to add 0.1%, although it remained below maximums of nine months from the previous day.
The S&P 500 futures rose 0.34% after Tuesday retreated from a record high during the day.
The belief that global monetary authorities will continue to pump liquidity into the banking system has supported the riskier assets in recent weeks.
“Family issues are still at stake,” said Ned Rumpeltin, European head of foreign exchange strategy at TD Securities. “Today is a day we have been, we are.”
The US Senate was due to hold a procedural vote on Wednesday that could pave the way for Congress to overturn US President Donald Trump’s veto on a key defense bill.
Also on Wednesday, data on the purchasing managers’ index in Chicago for December at 1445 GMT will forecast 57, according to a Reuters poll, compared to 58.2 last month.
A new, more transmissible variant of the virus is spreading rapidly, including in the United States, but European Union countries have also launched the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine this week.
“The prospect of faster and more widespread inoculation will be a blow to the markets as the fight against COVID-19 intensifies,” said Janet Mui, chief investment officer at wealth manager Brewin Dolphin.
The MSCI global stock market index rose 0.25% to a record high on Tuesday.
The index is up 14% this year and almost 70% from its March lows, boosted by billions of dollars in global economic stimulus and expectations that coronavirus vaccines will reopen blocked economies.
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Far from worrying about the virus, British lawmakers were due to vote on Wednesday, a day before a Brexit transition agreement expired.
The MSCI range of Asia-Pacific equities, excluding Japan, rose 1.4% to a record high, driven by gains in Chinese equities and rising its gains this year to 19%.
However, the average Japanese stock Nikkei lost 0.45% on the last trading day of 2020, after rising to a 30-year high on Tuesday. [.T]
In the foreign exchange markets, the weakness of the dollar continued. It fell again on Wednesday, the first day transactions will be settled in 2021.
The US dollar index fell 0.3% to its lowest level since April 2018. The euro reached its highest level since April 2018, close to $ 1.23.
The Australian dollar rose 0.9% to $ 0.7673, the highest level in two and a half years. The pound rose 0.8% over $ 1.36.
Bitcoin hit a record $ 28,599.99 after digital currency nearly quadrupled in value this year amid increased interest from larger investors.
10-year German bond yields [DE10YT=RR] – which moves inversely to the price – ticked up to -0.56%.
Oil gained ground as the dollar weakened, US crude oil stocks fell, and the UK approved a second coronavirus vaccine, although it was to end the year 20% lower. [O/R]
Gross US futures in West Texas rose 0.94% to $ 48.45 a barrel [O/R]. Gold was steady at $ 1,878 an ounce. [GOL/]