Europe’s futures increases.
While strong data from China played a huge role, the European stock market ended the week on a careful note because of fears of the long-awaited coronavirus vaccine.
When it was 02:00 AM Eastern Time, (07:00 GMT) the Germany DAX futures contract traded 0.1% in the upward direction, whereas the CAC 40 futures in France moved upward by only 0.1%. The UK FTSE 100 futures contracts, on the other hand, remained nearly unchanged.
The recent positive news about potential vaccines for the treatment of Covid-19 has led to a huge rise in stock markets around the world, but questions have been raised about the reliability of the drug AstraZeneca coronavirus (NASDAQ: AZN) results.
This drug is recognized as the best candidate to help developing countries given its low cost and relative storage and transportation convenience.
These suspicions could reduce the likelihood of early approval by US and EU regulators, particularly as AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Sorio said on Thursday that the company is now likely to undergo global testing.
On Thursday, British Health Secretary, Matt Hancock released the last details of the regional system, which will come into effect when the restrictions placed on 55 million people in the UK ends after a month of isolation. Nearly 50 per cent of the population continues to be restricted and remain under COVID-19 lockdown measures. People still have to live with very strict restrictions, because the virus continues to claim life.
On the positive side, China’s industrial profits rose to the fastest monthly interest rate in nearly nine years in October, another sign of a faster economic recovery in the world’s second-largest economy and an important trading area for European companies. US stocks reopened back of Friday for 50 per cent of the trading session after thanksgiving, but trading volumes are still expected to remain low.
In the corporate news, Unilever (NYSE: UL) comes into the spotlight as consumer goods manufacturers finally start trading in Amsterdam to catch on the last opportunity before the merger of Dutch and British corporate divisions into a single business unit in London anticipated to happen over the weekend.
Fall in the price of oil
Oil prices dropped on Friday and that was a fall from an eight-month high amid sluggish deals due to the U.S holiday. An additional factor that played a role in the drop is the market sentiment and anticipation of traders as they look towards the outcome of the meetings of some of the best oil producers scheduled to occur in the US.
OPEC and its allies, OPEC+, are expected to decide to sustain their present supply limits instead of increasing it by 2 million barrels every day in January, as the agreement made earlier. It is expected that the original decision will be upturned by the time the scheduled get together occurs by month-end. But given the recent rise in oil prices, this is not the group’s general perception.
U.S. crude oil futures fell 1.7 per cent to $44.94 per barrel, while the international benchmark Brent index fell 0.3 per cent to $47.87. Both are up about 6% this week. Gold futures rose 0.1% per ounce to $1,806.25, and euro/dollar rose 0.1% to 1.1925.
