Header Ads

5 things to start your day

December 08, 2020
Five Things - Europe
Bloomberg

Good morning. The U.K. starts Covid-19 vaccination, Boris Johnson heads to Brussels, and Hungary and Poland get a warning. Here's what's moving markets.

It's Vaccine Time

The U.K. is set to begin administering doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech on Tuesday, making it the first Western country to do so. The logistically challenging inoculation effort is getting underway at about 50 hospitals and marks the National Health Service's biggest immunization campaign in its history. Britain also announced that it plans to test the Pfizer shot in combination with the vaccine from AstraZeneca. Elsewhere, France is poised to miss a coronavirus goal set by President Emmanuel Macron as a condition for lifting the country's lockdown next week, with daily new infections holding at more than twice the targeted level.

Johnson's Travel Plans

Boris Johnson is popping over to Brussels for crisis talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in an attempt to break the deadlocked negotiations over a post-Brexit trade deal. The U.K. prime minister's travel plans are a sign that eight months of negotiations have gone as far they can, while both sides may think they have time to spare before the ultimate deadline at the end of the year. The pound pared Monday's loss, even as investors in British assets have been caught off guard by fading chances of a deal.

Signal Needed

Hungary and Poland must offer a clear signal by Tuesday that they'll lift their veto over the European Union's jointly financed stimulus plan or risk losing billions of euros in aid, officials warned. A senior diplomat said that, in the absence of a breakthrough, the EU will launch the recovery fund while excluding the two nations. Elsewhere, Romania's prime minister resigned after losing elections, though his party remains on course to lead the next government. Ludovic Orban helped steer Romania away from the populist policies that have seen Hungary and Poland clash with the trading bloc.

Big Spending Student

Students can often be careless spenders, but the son of a Russian oligarch reckons he lost $50 million in funds from his father on "risky" trades while he was at the London School of Economics. Farkhad Akhmedov's son, Temur, is at the center of the latest legal fight stemming from Britain's largest divorce case. The 27-year-old said that his mother, Tatiana Akhmedova, was well aware of his trading activities. Tatiana has accused her son of "wholeheartedly" aiding her ex-husband as she seeks to recover a 450 million-pound ($600 million) court-approved divorce payout.

Coming Up…

We'll get a German ZEW economic survey after better-than-expected industrial production data Monday, along with South Africa gross domestic product statistics. Earnings come from U.S.-focused construction suppliers Ferguson and Ashtead. There are holidays in several countries including Italy and Spain for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

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

Global investors have decided what they want for Christmas -- it's anything Asia. Cash continues to pour into stocks, bonds and other asset classes all across Asia Pacific as investors scramble to get exposure to what is expected to be the fastest growing region as the world recovers from the coronavirus pandemic. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index hit a record last week and the Bloomberg Barclays Asia Pacific Aggregate Total Return Bond Index is close to its highest in four years. Investors added the most money to emerging-market exchange-traded funds since January last week and the inflows were dominated by Asia, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Chinese and Hong Kong funds saw the biggest demand but South Korean ETFs had a record inflow and no individual country suffered an outflow, the data showed. On the fixed income side, foreign holdings of China's debt have surged to a record $274 billion and bond funds have hoovered up more than $2.5 billion of high-yielding Indonesian sovereign debt this quarter, the most since September 2019. The enthusiasm has even seeped into the derivatives market with Credit Suisse strategist Mandy Xu highlighting strong bullish flow for call options on Asian equities, in a note to clients Tuesday. Still, some caution that the Asia enthusiasm could soon ebb, not least because the inclusion of China into bond indexes from Bloomberg Barclays and JPMorgan Chase & Co. -- which boosted inflows -- will soon be behind us. But if you're stuck for a present for that special someone in your life -- Asian securities look set to be this season's must-haves.

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.
 

Post a Comment

No comments

Subscribe to: Post Comments ( Atom )