Stocks near record highs ahead of US aid bill deadline - 18.12.2020

The Dollar weakening has halted currently ahead of US Q3 current account report at 14:30 CET today expected to show the current account deficit widened. The live dollar index data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure of the dollar’s strength against a basket of six rival currencies, fell 0.5% Thursday as US Labor Department reported 885 thousand Americans sought unemployment benefits over the last week, up from 862 thousand the previous week.

Both GBP/USD and EUR/USD continued climbing Thursday as the Bank of England kept its main lending rate at 0.1%, and retained its asset purchases at £895 billion ($1.2 trillion). Both euro and Pound are lower against the Dollar currently. AUD/USD continued advancing yesterday while USD/JPY continued its sliding with both yen and Australian dollar lower against the greenback currently.

Futures on three main US stock indexes are lower currently. Wall Street rallied yesterday with three main US stock benchmarks closing at all time highs booking gains ranging from 0.5% to 0.8%. as US lawmakers continued to negotiate a new $908 billion stimulus package for US economy. Stock valuations are near all-time highs with the SP 500 trading at 22 times forward earnings, compared to a historical average of 15.3 times.

European stock indexes are down today after ending higher Thursday led by retail stocks. Asian indexes are mostly lower currently with Australia’s All Ordinaries ASX 200 Index leading losses after reports the United States is set to add around 80 of Chinese companies, including top chipmaker SMIC, to its trade blacklist.