Advanced Share Registry : Market News 04 DEC 2020

The Nasdaq hit another record high, but the session offered little movement as major indices earned nominal gains. The US dollar continued its march down to two and a half year lows, offering Gold markets relief from weeks of selling since its record highs.

After months of record equity price recovery in concert with rapid vaccine development and unbelievable stimulus from Central banks globally, the stark reality is that more people died of Covid 19 yesterday than the 9/11 attacks with 2,804 deaths. For clearer context, that exceeds April's fatality record when markets were deep in a hole. Markets have found reason upon reason to 'look through' the disaster and imagine the solution for months while the country now has more hospital beds occupied by the pandemic's brutality than ever before. Health officials are warning that the next few months will be like nothing the country has experienced before. Numbers reveal 200,000 new cases and 100,000 hospitalisations for the first-time last night as cumulative deaths touched 270 000.

CDC director Robert Redfield said stricter adherence to safety precautions like face coverings, social distancing and good hand hygiene is now essential. 'The reality is that December, January and February are going to be rough times,' he said while projecting up to 450 000 deaths as quickly as February. The mayor of Los Angeles ordered residents to stay home and avoid social gatherings. He said, 'Our city is now close to a devastating tipping point, beyond which the number of hospitalised patients would start to overwhelm our hospital system, in turn risking needless suffering and death.' California has also said lockdowns will emerge if critical-care units reach capacity. As if these warnings weren't dire enough, 'optimism generator' Pfizer expects to only ship half the doses it had intended after raw materials in early production didn't meet its standard, leaving a shortfall of 50 million doses. Pfizer and BioNtech plan to export 1.3 billion vaccine doses in 2021.

Initial jobless aid claims data fell due to the Thanksgiving holiday but is still elevated with 712 000 applications. That's a drop from 787 000 the week prior, but miles above pre-pandemic averages of 225 000/week as 20.2 million people remain on aid. With two federal benefits programs expiring on Boxing day, an estimated 9.1 million people must soon find other ways to make ends meet. Rising limitations on movement, capacities in businesses that rely on crowds and operating business hours leads most experts to believe the economy can't sustain a recovery until an effective and widely adopted vaccine brings the virus under control. These dire numbers may explain why Democrats have slashed their plan for a $2 trillion-plus aid package by more than half to avoid leaving families without any support at all.

Dow Jones	29969.52	+85.73	+0.3%
US S&P500	3666.72	-2.29	-0.1%
US Nasdaq	12377.18	+27.816	+0.2%
UK FTSE	6490.27	+26.88	+0.4%
German Dax	13252.86	-60.38	-0.5%
Gold Futures ($US/oz)	1841.10	+10.90	+0.6%
Spot Iron Ore ($US/t)	137.80	+1.05	+0.8%

Commodities continue showing strength, including a seven-year high for iron ore, which led gains for miners but Europe's Stoxx 600 was largely flat. Other performers were travel and leisure stocks, gaining 3.5%. Rolls-Royce jumped 15%on signs it may return to the narrow-body jet market. The European Central Bank promised to make further stimulus available for the eurozone soon. As Brexit negotiations continue, diplomats said they hoped a trade deal with Britain might emerge by Friday or the weekend. Oil also inched higher as OPEC+ agreed to ease oil-output cuts next year to a gradually phased plan allows markets time to absorb the extra supply. Our futures are dead flat pre-open despite iron ores performance driving US listings for BHP and Rio up 2.4 per cent and 3.4 per cent. CBA though has become bearish on iron ore prices as, 'The recent surge in iron ore prices to multi year highs suggest that prices are more likely to decline from here over the next 12 months.

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