Header Ads

5 things to start your day

Five Things - Europe
Bloomberg

Good morning. A European budget standoff ends, Britain nurses a double blow and Turkey faces new sanctions. Here's what's moving markets.

Standoff Ends

European Union leaders resolved a standoff with member states Hungary and Poland that had threatened to delay a historic $2.2 trillion budget and stimulus package. The resolution comes as the latest wave of coronavirus rages, with nations including France continuing to adjust social restrictions and Germany reporting the biggest rise in cases and deaths since the pandemic began. Here's why the stimulus deal is so important. The euro extended Thursday's gains, which also came as the European Central Bank said an approved 500 billion euros in bond-buying "need not be used in full." 

Britain's Woes

U.K. assets are nursing a double blow as Prime Minister Boris Johnson's warning of a possible no-deal Brexit combined with news that London may move into the toughest tier of coronavirus restrictions to send the pound tumbling the most intraday in two months against the dollar, before trimming the decline. Domestic shares also underperformed Thursday, but losses were cut on a bit of brighter news from the Bank of England, which announced lenders can resume dividend payouts.

Turkey Sanctions

The U.S. plans to impose sanctions on Turkey over its purchase of S-400 missiles. President Donald Trump, who has long highlighted his personal rapport with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had resisted bipartisan calls from Congress to punish Turkey for the deal with Russia. A chief U.S. concern is that the S-400 could be used to collect intelligence on the stealth capabilities of the F-35 combat aircraft. There was more bad news for Turkey as the EU pledged to expand a list of Turks targeted with travel bans and asset freezes over controversial energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.

Vaccine Clears Hurdle

An authorization for Pfizer and BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine could come from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration within days after it won the backing of a panel of government advisers. Part of the panel's discussion focused on whether there was enough data to support the vaccine's use in 16- and 17-year-olds. Elsewhere, Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline said they'll delay their adjuvanted recombinant protein-based vaccine program to improve immune response in the elderly.

Coming Up…

Stock futures are lower amid a warning that portions of a U.S. relief package proposal aren't likely to get backing from a majority of Republicans. In data, we'll get Italian industrial production and U.S. producer prices, while in earnings, jet engine-maker Rolls-Royce and eye health technology group Carl Zeiss Meditec are updating. In deal news, Mike Ashley's Frasers Group is getting closer to a deal to rescue part of the Debenhams department-store chain, while oil giant Saudi Aramco is working on a plan to raise billions of dollars from asset sales, Bloomberg reports. Finally, Ferrari Chief Executive Officer Louis Camilleri abruptly retired, with representatives saying he is recovering from Covid-19.

What We've Been Reading

This is what's caught our eye over the past 24 hours. 

And finally, here's what Cormac Mullen is interested in this morning

It's tempting to write about the amazing "first-day pop" IPO party in the U.S., but the world and its mother has opined on it by now and I have little to add beyond "wow" and "that's nuts." It's another sign of the greed on steroids trend I discussed during the week but perhaps more interestingly it comes at a time when frenzied demand for haven assets is just as evident. The world's stockpile of negative-yielding debt has swelled to the highest level ever recorded, hitting $18.04 trillion on Thursday. About $1 trillion of bonds have seen their yields turn negative this week, meaning 27% of the world's investment-grade debt is now sub-zero. Despite optimism about a global economic recovery next year sparking a rush to riskier assets like stocks and corporate debt, continued monetary support from central banks and concern about the relentless spread of the coronavirus has maintained investor interest in "safer" sovereign bonds. Bond bulls got a boost on Thursday when the ECB boosted its asset purchase program by an additional 500 billion euros. Meanwhile, both Australian bills and Spanish 10-year debt saw sub-zero yields at auction for the first time. In today's market, greed may be good but safety seems just as sweet.

Cormac Mullen is a Cross-Asset reporter and editor for Bloomberg News in Tokyo 

Like Bloomberg's Five Things? Subscribe for unlimited access to trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and gain expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close.

 

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can't find anywhere else. Learn more.

 

No comments