News

The market remains unperturbed by the lack of government fiscal support, seemingly taking the view that a clean sweep by the Democrats will see a large fiscal stimulus early next year anyway, which will more than offset any concern that higher taxes might

It is set to be a busy week ahead with the focus on quarterly reporting season in the US and a number of AGM’s in Australia/NZ.

Locally, the RBNZ continues to reiterate that it is better to do too much than too little, thus locking in negative interest rates for next year – underpinning positive share market investor sentiment which saw the NZX hit a new all-time high.

Markets also appear to see a greater chance of a clear Biden win in the election, reducing the risk that Trump disputes the result and creates a drawn-out period of uncertainty.

US stocks jumped, clawing back the decline triggered by Donald Trump’s suspension of stimulus talks, after the US president backed a piecemeal approach to aid and investors took a longer-term view on a spending program.

Global markets were lower on Friday as US stocks experienced a knee-jerk sell-off (S&P 500 Index -0.9%) in reaction to President Trump announcing he has tested positive for covid-19. 

Thursday brought the start of a new quarter, but trading started choppy across the globe as investors focussed on the smoke signals from US stimulus talks as a deal between Republicans and Democrats remains out of reach, government responses to new waves

Energy and Financial sectors were the biggest drag in the session, while travel related companies were also weaker as concerns rose over a possible resurgence in covid-19 cases, as data showed New York City’s rate of positive Covid-19 tests rose above 3%

Investors watched the first US Presidential debate closely yesterday, and after a messy debate it is hard to quantify the impact on markets, although polling in the wake of the debate showed that the odds of Joe Biden winning increased.