The new round of Sino-US tensions started after the US closed Chinese diplomatic mission in Houston over spying concerns along with a statement from President Trump about the possibilities of closing more missions. Chinese officials responded with closing US consulate in Chengdu. Despite the rising political tensions, the US stock market closed higher on Wednesday…

UNITED STATES As negotiations in Washington will continue, there was a bit of uncertainty over the timing of a fresh stimulus program especially with some U.S senators (Mitch McConnel in particular), casting doubt on reaching a fresh rescue bill before some current benefits do expire. This however did not deter the performance of the futures…

UNITED STATES The NASDAQ rebounded from last week’s losses to surge 2.51% on Monday on the back of significant gains for Amazon, Tesla, among other tech stocks. The DOW just about closed in the green at 0.03% while the S&P rose 0.84%. Yield on 10Y USTs closed lower at 0.6102%. EUROPEAN UNION The EU finally…

There was a turnaround in market sentiment last week as some positive vaccine news made the headlines. Moderna’s experimental coronavirus vaccine next stage is a large and decisive clinical trial after recent results showed the shot induced the desired immune response while Oxford’s scientists also reported on results that blood samples taken from a group…

UNITED STATES The risk on mood of Wednesday spilled over into Thursday and we ended up with having a green-coloured day yesterday, although with much calmer moves. US Initial Jobless claims data failed to buoy markets, with initial claims coming as a small miss (1.3m vs exp. 1.25m) although retail sales data posted a surprising…

Positive news on two new vaccine trials supported the markets last evening, S&P gained 0.9%, Nasdaq closed 0.6% higher. The shares of drugmakers involved surged – AstraZeneca added 5%, Moderna gained 7%. The yield on 10Y USTs lost 0.7 bps and closed at 0.631% level. Asian equities trading lower today after weak retail sales in…

UNITED STATES News of the much talked about vaccine brought quite a bit of optimism to the financial markets which have been struggling lately to make headway in the face of new outbreaks across the U.S and Asia. Stocks and equity futures in the U.S advanced on the back of this news. Futures on the…

UNITED STATES The spectre, that is COVID-19, showed its hand in markets on Monday prompting a pullback in US stocks in just the final hour of trading. Stocks were set for a green start to the week in line with other major indices – Europe (Stoxx up 1%; FTSE up 1.32%) and Asia (Nikkei up…

Sunday marked a record increase in global coronavirus cases with a 230k increase in cases recorded. The pool of countries contributing the most to the increase in cases is comprised by the usual suspects US, Brazil, India and South Africa. In the US, Florida keeps hitting daily records in number of infections with Sunday’s reading…

UNITED STATES We came to work yesterday to see a sea of green and futures pointing higher, the screens were being lifted and Brent moved all the way up to $43.5/b levels. It looked like the week would end on a good note and with a happy mood… and then “screech, halt, thud” happened. The…