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Five Things - Europe
Bloomberg

Good morning. Brexit talks have been extended, Germany is heading into a tougher lockdown and a Covid vaccine moves a step closer in the U.S. Here's what's moving markets.

Extra Mile

The European Union and the U.K. agreed to keep trade deal negotiations going beyond the latest deadline of Sunday. A call between U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen added fresh impetus to the push to get a deal done, with the pair saying the two sides will go the "extra mile." That at least provides more time for all those watching on with bated breath to study up on the threat a no-deal Brexit brings, what trading under World Trade Organization rules would entail and the importance of the Irish border. Higher hopes for a deal may mean a boost for some U.K. domestic stock sectors, like banks and homebuilders, and it caused the pound to jump.

Tougher Lockdown

Germany will go into a hard lockdown on Wednesday, with non-essential stores to close, employers urged to shut down workplaces and school children encouraged to stay at home. The country has struggled in the second wave of the virus and is lagging many of its neighbors in keeping infection rates under control. The signs are not good in plenty of other places too. New York is stopping indoor dining on Monday, California is raising the alarm on rising Covid deaths, South Korea has said tighter restrictions may be "inevitable," and health workers in Sweden are quitting in record numbers.

Vaccine Drive

U.S. regulators voted to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Friday and advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted to recommend its use, clearing one of the final hurdles before vaccinations can start being distributed across the country with hospitals awaiting their arrival. President Donald Trump and top officials are set to be offered the vaccine within days. In Europe, the first vaccines may be approved by the end of the year, Abu Dhabi is opening back up to foreign tourists on optimism about a treatment and Israel is likely to accelerate its vaccine schedule. And here is a stock traders' guide to the global rollout.

Rare Diseases

Dealmaking burst back into life in the pharmaceutical industry over the weekend. AstraZeneca, one of the companies at the forefront of the race for a Covid vaccine, struck its biggest ever deal with the $39 billion purchase of Alexion Pharmaceuticals. The acquisition would give AstraZeneca more exposure to the lucrative business of treatments for rare diseases. Meanwhile, its rival GlaxoSmithKline is said to be in the race to buy Eidos Therapeutics, putting in a competing offer to the one already agreed to from BridgeBio Pharma.

Coming Up…

European and U.S. stock-futures climbed along with Asian shares with investors comforted by the impending vaccine rollout in the U.S., the Brexit talks extension and further stimulus bill negotiations. The earnings and economic calendars for Europe are pretty quiet on Monday. OPEC's oil market report will be published, with crude heading higher again. The U.S. Electoral College is set to cast votes on Monday after the Supreme Court sounded the legal death-knell for Trump's attempts to overturn the election results.

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 the time of the year when inboxes fill with year-ahead investment outlooks and it won't surprise anyone to learn that strategists expect more gains for stocks. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index is seen climbing by about 7% on average, according to a Bloomberg survey. The most optimistic forecast has the benchmark surging by about 20% but there are those brave enough to face some career risk and plump for losses, with the most pessimistic estimate coming in at a modest 4% decline for the year. In the U.S., strategists are a little more bullish and expect about a 10% gain in 2021, which is the second-best since 2009. Not once in two decades has the consensus been for a down year, as my colleague Lu Wang noted over the weekend. Still, though the European and U.S. outlooks are more or less the same, it has to be remembered they are coming from different places. The Stoxx 600 is on track for a 6% decline this year, while the S&P 500 is poised for a gain of 13%.

Cormac Mullen is a cross-asset reporter and editor for Bloomberg News in Tokyo.

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