Stocks rise despite bad vaccine news, focus on ECB

Wednesday was a very bullish day for equities worldwide, and major indices posted huge gains between 2-4%. We will see if the buying continues today as investors will pay attention to the ECB meeting.

Yesterday, traders ignored news that AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s Covid-19 vaccine trial has been put on hold after a participant in the UK had a suspected adverse reaction. The stock indices just kept rallying. 

Later in the day, the European Central Bank decides on monetary policy. Markets expect another dovish meeting as the euro is trading near the 1.20 threshold, which might be considered a pretty strong level for the single currency. 

The focus is likely to be on whether the central bank tries to weaken the euro, given the importance of the export sector for the region.

Moreover, the US jobless claims will be released and should tick lower again. This could be another positive news for stocks. 

Commodity markets rallied Wednesday as well and corrected some of their losses from previous days. The WTI oil is seen near 37 USD as demand problems reemerged, and gold was trading at around 1,945 USD at the last check. 

Source: https://www.axiory.com/market-news/stocks-rise-despite-bad-vaccine-news-focus-on-ecb