APAC Morning Update - 10 Nov 2020

It’s a good day for the world, with the bi-product being a good day for markets. Pfizer is one of the companies working hard on a vaccine, and they have released a study showing it prevents 90% of Coronavirus infections. Still early days, but very positive both in how far along they are, and how effective it is. Previously, 50% effectiveness would have been considered a success by comparison. There is still a long way to go, in terms of further study, and the timeline to roll it out, but for now it is definitely a huge light at the end of the tunnel, and gives massive hope into 2021 and beyond.

The market reaction is not fully linear in response to it. As you can imagine, stock markets in countries like France that are hit very hard with second waves and subsequent lockdowns have responded the most positively, as a vaccine would make the biggest change to their daily lives. However, leaders like the Canadian and UK PMs have been quick to preach caution. This makes a lot of sense, as the natural reaction is, why are we in lockdown if we have a vaccine just around the corner? This is a real risk in somewhere like America, where adherence to lockdowns may not be top of what people are worrying about. This is an issue for Covid figures in a months’ time though, and for now the news is a very positive development.

Global equity markets are sharply higher - Dow +4.5%, S&P 500 +2.7%, FTSE +4.7%, DAX +5.0%, CAC +7.6%, Nikkei +2.1%, Shanghai +1.9%.

Gold prices are off 4.4%% to USD$1,866 an ounce and WTI Crude Oil prices up 7.5% to US$40.2 per barrel.