Tuesday, December 1st, 2020
Investors are attracted to the prospect of a vaccine against the coronavirus soon. And although they cash in on some of the stocks that have recently performed well, the indices continue to advance. There is also news of a new attempt at a government aid package and some optimism from the Fed.
The records are not getting old on Wall Street. Right at the start of trading, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq indices conquered new highs. Both news about the corona vaccines and about economic aid provided an improved mood. The Dow Jones Index in the end gained 0.6 percent to 29,824 points. The broader one S&P 500 increased by 1.1 percent and the more tech-heavy one Nasdaq Composite gained 1.3 percent.
After a week-long standstill, the talks about a corona aid package for the USA apparently moved. House Democratic spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin wanted to speak on the phone on the issue, insiders said. Pelosi and President-elect Joe Biden spoke out in favor of rapid aid.
Vaccine prospect spurred on
There was again good news about corona vaccines. As already announced, Moderna has applied for approval of its vaccine in the USA and the EU. Pfizer and Biontech have also submitted an application for conditional approval of their vaccine to the European Medicines Agency (EMA). They had already applied for a permit in the US and UK. The Moderna share sagged after gains by 7.7 percent. For Pfizer it went up 2.9 percent, Biotech stock fell 8.2 percent. Profits were taken in the sharply increased shares of Moderna and Biotech, it said.
Good economic data from China also had a supportive effect. There he climbed Caixin purchasing managers index for the manufacturing sector in November to its highest level in ten years. The appearance of US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in front of the Senate also corresponded to the taste of the stock exchange traders. On the one hand, he emphasized that the economy had recovered faster than expected, and on the other hand, it still had a long way to go – and therefore needed support. Powell signaled that the Fed would use its instruments to support the economy.
Apple and Amazon have agreed to cooperate in app development. Amazon wants to give app developers access to Apple computers with its cloud division AWS. There the software developers should be able to program and test their applications. Apple advanced 3.1 percent for that Amazon share it went up by 1.6 percent.
Red pencil at Exxon, profit-taking at Zoom
Exxon Mobil gained one percent. The oil company is reducing its investment spending. At the same time, the company announced value adjustments for the fourth quarter. Alcoa improved by 9.7 percent. The aluminum smelter wants to sell its aluminum rolling mill in Warrick to Kaiser Aluminum and sees the sale proceeds at 670 million dollars. The iron and steel works in Warrick are to remain in the group. The Kaiser share won a good 12 percent.
zoom lost a good 15 percent. The third quarter figures of the provider of technology for video telephony and video conferencing were clearly better than expected. The outlook also beat market estimates. The company has profited greatly from the trend towards home office, whereupon the share has risen sharply in the current year, which has now tempted investors to reap accrued profits.
On the foreign exchange market, the euro climbed the 1.20 mark with the increased risk appetite. It stood at $ 1.2058. The dollar index slumped 0.8 percent, weighed down by the good economic data from China and the vaccine hopes that make the greenback less attractive to investors as a supposedly safe currency haven.
Oil prices fell. Here, the focus was on the OPEC meeting, where the future funding policy will continue to be fought. Some uncertainty could be caused by reports that the decision to extend the existing production cuts was pushed forward to Thursday when the oil cartel meets with the non-OPEC producing countries around Russia (OPEC +). The US variety WTI fell 1.7 percent to $ 44.55, Brent traded 1.0 percent lighter at $ 47.39. gold was asked about his latest setback. The troy ounce was trading 2.1 percent higher at $ 1,814, supported by the weaker dollar. The US bonds were sold off. The yield on ten-year paper soared with falling prices by 8.1 basis points to 0.92 percent.
. (tagsToTranslate) Wall Street (t) stock trading (t) stock prices