- Pharma M&A buzz lifts Nasdaq.
- Stimulus progress assists US futures in after-market hours.
- NZD awaits China numbers.
Pharmaceuticals helped the Nasdaq Composite to clock 0.50 Percent gain in a day when the Dow Jones fell by 0.62 Percent, and S&P 500 declined 0.44 Percent. M&A buzz surrounding AstraZeneca and Alexion pumped up the pharma stocks. The overall market action pushed the volatility higher with VIX volatility index rising six Percent.
US futures moved into the green after the regular-market-close as a bipartisan group of Congressional lawmakers presented a 748 billion dollars fiscal stimulus package. Senate Majority Leader McConnell and House Speaker Pelosi have to endorse it to have further progress. Market participants might consider the new proposal as progress, and it comes at a critical juncture as the current stop-gap arrangement has a deadline on December 11.
The Asia-Pacific trading might follow the lead set by the US futures. The New Zealand dollar trades slightly higher against the greenback, attempting a bounce after two successive days in the red while hovering near multi-year highs.
New Zealand has been successful till date in preventing the spread of the coronavirus and has recently announced that it would allow travel with Australia from next year without quarantine stipulation.
China’s economic data in the day ahead – fixed asset investment, industrial production, retail sales, and unemployment numbers due 02:00 GMT, might trigger action in the risk-sensitive NZD.
At the time of writing, one New Zealand dollar buys 0.7074 US dollars, slightly down -0.05% as of 8:30 AM UTC.
