Brexit Trade Talks Continue This Week, Will There Be a Change of Direction?
Last week market sentiment was jumping around amidst global events, in large from the US. Firstly, newswire saw Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, declared as winners of the US Presidential election, pending legal challenges from the Trump camp; these are still ongoing. However, the big shift in investor sentiment was driven by the news of a COVID vaccine. German company BioNTech and the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced via a press release on Monday that their jointly developed vaccine candidate had outperformed expectations in the crucial phase 3 trials, proving 90% effective in stopping people from falling ill. This resulted in equity and oil markets pushing significantly higher whilst the US Dollar weakened as a result. As the week progressed investor sentiment tapered as the market continued to decipher and articulate how this can be rolled out and what challenges remain. In the meantime, the UK’s economic challenges remain as data disappointed somewhat. The UK jobs data reinforced unease over labour-market trends, especially a sharp increase in redundancies. The headline unemployment rate rose to 4.8% from 4.5% An extension of the furlough scheme provided an element of relief and Sterling was also protected by optimism that vaccine developments would help provide a key lifeline for the economy. The UK's economy bounced back from recession with record growth of 15.5% in July to September, this was slightly below expectations. Furthermore analysts warned that it was likely to shrink again in the final three months of the year