Advanced Share Registry : Market News 06 Jan 2021

Georgias critical Senate run-off results will be known by this time tomorrow with Treasury yields and Gold up ahead of possible significant stimulus from a Democrat sweep. However, if either Republican incumbent Senator retains their seat, the GOP will have enough firepower to frustrate Biden's plans. With a substantial Black voter turnout visible in the final hours of polling the odds appear long for Republicans. Either way, markets will draw out the most bullish case from either result as that's been the markets model for many months now. Hedge fund managers are finally becoming wary, however. Able to position their funds both long and short, they're reweighting slightly toward stay-at-home trades as the Pandemic gathers strength and mutates mid- winter. Online tech companies doubled the Nasdaq 100 last year as those companies were well-positioned for lockdown commerce habits. The November/December market gains came from the reweighting back to travel-leisure-retail groups after various vaccine developments.

Stocks rose on shallow volume while oil surged over fifty dollars again as the Saudis pledged a voluntarily million barrel/day reduction in output. The surprise move comes as fresh waves of lockdowns crimp demand while strong reluctance from other OPEC members was unlikely to alter previous agreements. The S&P index of exploration and production companies bounced over 9 %.

In the background, Trump continues to frustrate the investment confidence as another of his court challenges fails at the starter line. In Atlanta, a U.S. District Judge denied Trump's motion to 'de-certify' President-elect Joe Biden's victory, calling it 'quixotic' while Georgias Governor added 'absurd,' and that his lawsuit was born from a 'manufactured crisis.' Another case is scheduled for Friday in Georgia, but Biden's certification on Jan. 6 would likely make that effort a non-starter.

Despite protests from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, The New York Stock Exchange has declined to delist three major Chinese telecommunications companies over uncertain terminology from the Whitehouse order seeking to ban companies linked to the Chinese military. The Exchange said it would move forward with delisting, once clarity is given. According to the order, U.S. investment firms and pension funds must sell all these companies by Nov. 11. Still, doubt remains whether a president Biden will or can support this move.

The U.S. ISM manufacturing index reached 60.7%, compared to November's 57.5% and a new high since August 2018. That's the eighth consecutive month of growth for U.S. manufacturing which has done much of the heavy lifting to save the country from a more critical situation. COVID driven Labour market challenges continue to restrict manufacturers ability to expand at more robust rates for now.

Dow Jones	30391.60	+167.71	+0.6%
US S&P500	3726.86	+26.21	+0.7%
US Nasdaq	12818.96	+120.513	+1.0%
UK FTSE	6612.25	+40.37	+0.6%
German Dax	13651.22	-75.52	-0.6%
Gold Futures ($US/oz)	1954.4	+7.80	+0.4%
Spot Iron Ore ($US/t)	167.15	+2.65	+1.6%

Europe's STOXX 600 index fell just 0.2% in light trade as the new Covid strain spread while concerns over vaccine deployment rose. With one person in every 50 people infected with coronavirus in England, Boris Johnson warned that the weeks ahead 'will be the hardest yet.' According to the World Health Organization, his government's decision to extend intervals between two-dose vaccines to give more people one-shot, comes with enormous risk. Germany is assumed to extend its lockdown measures later in the week. Our markets have opened slightly down despite iron ores continue run, pushing the Aussie dollar to new 12-month highs.

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