Stocks near record highs ahead of US aid bill deadline

Dmitry Lukashov IFC Markets

Top daily news

Global equities markets have paused currently ahead of US $900 billion COVID-19 aid bill deadline today, though Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said talks could continue into the weekend. Stocks rallied Thursday. Tesla jumped 5.3% ahead of its debut on Monday as part of the SP 500 index, outperforming market, Bitcoin price gained 0.66%.

Forex news

Currency Pair	Change
EUR USD	-0.31%
GBP USD	-0.5%
USD JPY	0.45%

The Dollar weakening has halted currently ahead of US Q3 current account report at 14:30 CET today expected to show the current account deficit widened. The live dollar index data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure of the dollar's strength against a basket of six rival currencies, fell 0.5% Thursday as US Labor Department reported 885 thousand Americans sought unemployment benefits over the last week, up from 862 thousand the previous week.

Both GBP/USD and EUR/USD continued climbing Thursday as the Bank of England kept its main lending rate at 0.1%, and retained its asset purchases at £895 billion ($1.2 trillion). Both euro and Pound are lower against the Dollar currently. AUD/USD continued advancing yesterday while USD/JPY continued its sliding with both yen and Australian dollar lower against the greenback currently.

Stock Market news

Indices	Change
Dow Jones Index	-0.15%
GB 100 Index	-0.18%
Nikkei Index	-0.16%
Australian Stock Index	-1.2%
Hang Seng Index	-0.02%

Futures on three main US stock indexes are lower currently. Wall Street rallied yesterday with three main US stock benchmarks closing at all time highs booking gains ranging from 0.5% to 0.8%. as US lawmakers continued to negotiate a new $908 billion stimulus package for US economy. Stock valuations are near all-time highs with the SP 500 trading at 22 times forward earnings, compared to a historical average of 15.3 times.

European stock indexes are down today after ending higher Thursday led by retail stocks. Asian indexes are mostly lower currently with Australia's All Ordinaries ASX 200 Index leading losses after reports the United States is set to add around 80 of Chinese companies, including top chipmaker SMIC, to its trade blacklist.

Commodity Market news

Commodities	Change
Brent Crude Oil	-0.34%
WTI Crude	-0.48%

Brent is edging lower today. Oil prices rose yesterday. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures ended higher yesterday: WTI rose 1.1% but is lower currently. Brent crude closed 0.8% higher at $51.50 a barrel on Thursday.

Gold Market News

Metals	Change
Gold	-0.42%

Gold prices are inching down today . February gold settled 1.7% higher at $1,890.40 an ounce on Thursday.

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Author

Dmitry Lukashov

IFC Markets

Dimtry Lukashov is the senior analyst of IFC Markets. He started his professional career in the financial market as a trader interested in stocks and obligations.

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