Stocks

Bloomberg The fate of global markets now depends at least in part on laboratories around the world probing the omicron Covid-19 strain, potentially leaving investors with weeks of uncertainty in the wait for answers. The variant detected in Africa is described as highly worrying and international travel bans are proliferating. Scientists are analysing whether it can evade inoculations and the …

Bloomberg In a change of tone over the world’s two biggest emerging markets, global investors overseeing billions of dollars are slowly starting to favour China versus India — reversing a year-long trend that’s pushed stocks in opposite directions. BlackRock Inc. has upgraded Chinese stocks as policy hurdles ease, saying “the time to position in China is now,” while trimming its …

Bloomberg One reason the first Covid-19 crash was so brutal back in March 2020 was all the froth that built up in markets before the virus landed. While there are differences for traders navigating the latest scare, a lot is the same, too. Chief among the similarities is a prevailing sense of comfort that investors found in solid economic data, …

Bloomberg US Treasuries rise as traders tempered their expectations for monetary-policy tightening after New Zealand’s measured approach to rate hikes. Oil prices climbed as producers and major consuming nations headed for a confrontation. Signals from the stock market were mixed, with the European benchmark opening higher while US index futures fell modestly. Energy stocks were among the best performers in …

Bloomberg Speculative stocks had a rough day, as did Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. To some market-watchers, that’s no coincidence. The 100-day correlation coefficient of Bitcoin and the S&P 500 stands at 0.33, among the highest readings of the year. That means that when stocks move up, Bitcoin is likely to do the same, and vice versa. (A coefficient of 1 …

Bloomberg BlackRock Inc is trimming its investments in Indian equities and becoming more optimistic on China on attractive valuations amid expectations that policy hurdles will ease next year. “Valuations are the key right now,” Belinda Boa, head of active investments for Asia Pacific at the world’s biggest asset manager, said at a briefing. “Because of the outperformance we’ve seen in …

Bloomberg US index futures and European stocks fall as investors weighed the prospects of a quicker withdrawal of monetary stimulus and the economic impact of renewed lockdowns. December contracts on the S&P 500 Index falls 0.4% after the underlying gauge posted a last-hour decline. A rout in technology shares that spurred those losses echoed in a 0.6% drop in Nasdaq …

Bloomberg Apple Inc shares closed at a record high, with the iPhone maker bucking broad-based weakness in the tech sector to rise for a seventh straight session. The stock rises as much as 3.2% but pared much of that advance in afternoon trading, ending with a gain of 0.3%. The company’s seven-day rally represents its longest streak of positive sessions …

Bloomberg US equity futures rise as Chinese signals for possible easing measures outweighed concern over virus curbs in Europe. European stocks were boosted by deal activity. December contracts on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 Index rise 0.3% each after a cautious week that saw the benchmark gauge underperform the technology measure. Telecom Italia SpA jumped as much as 30% …

Bloomberg MSCI Inc’s decision to start tracking internet giants JD.com Inc and NetEase Inc. via their Hong Kong shares rather than American Depositary Receipts may reinforce a gradual shift in liquidity away from the US for Chinese stocks. The move comes amid heightened tension between the US and China over listing rules that is seeing some firms favour security at …