Weekly Recap 16-20 Nov

Over the ending week, the market continued to be supported by positive news about Coronavirus vaccines, after both Moderna and Pfizer announced high success rates for their vaccine candidates.

Meanwhile, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, is yet to concede the past elections, in which his lost to former Vice President and the Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

A manual recount of votes in the state of Georgina showed once again that Biden is the winner.

Georgia is a key battleground that will determine in January which of the two major American political parties will hold a majority in the Senate.

Asia

Coronavirus cases in Japan and abroad are increasing to record levels, increasing the risk of losing momentum to the recovery and deflation once again as government plans to support growth are hampered.

Government data showed that the world’s third-largest economy grew 21.4% year-on-year in the quarter from July to September, beating the average market forecast of 18.6% and marking the first growth in four quarters.

This is the largest increase since comparative data became available in 1980 and comes after a 28.8% drop in the second quarter when consumption was hit by measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

Europe

Consumer prices in the Eurozone fell by 0.3% in October 2020 compared to last year’s, which is equivalent to the previous month’s decline.

Meanwhile, service inflation slowed to 0.4% from 0.5% prior, while food, alcohol and tobacco prices rose at a faster rate of 2.0% versus 1.8%.

The Euro traded near 1.189 and settled near the week’s high at 1.1894 with broad dollar weakness as Coronavirus cases increased in Europe.

The Turkish consumer confidence index fell 2.2% to 80.1 points in November from 81.9 the previous month, indicating a state of caution after a brief improvement in light of the worsening outbreak of the Coronavirus, according to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute.

Gold

Gold prices declined by 0.7% over the week, limiting their losses after a rise on Friday.

Oil

For the first time in nine weeks, the number of active oil rigs in the United States declined. Meanwhile, crude prices continued to register gains for the third consecutive week, rising by about 5%.

Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin showed once again the strong comeback it is staging in 2020, by reaching its highest level in three years by the end of the week.

Bitcoin surged on Friday to its highest level in about three years, at $18,600.

The largest cryptocurrency is re-approaching its all-time high a little over $19,783.

On Friday, the digital currency rose by 4.5%, extending its weekly gains to 16%, the largest seen since June 2019.

Year-to-Date, Bitcoin has gained more than 160%.

Wall Street

The benchmark indices in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) all recorded losses.

The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 0.7%, while S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite declined by 0.8% and 0.2%, respectively.