(Bloomberg) — Asian stocks rose Monday and U.S. futures pointed higher amid a flurry of deal activity and signs of progress toward a vaccine. The dollar and Treasuries were little changed ahead of this week’s Federal Reserve meeting.
South Korea led modest regional gains with an advance of about 1%. S&P 500 futures rose about 1%. Comments from the Pfizer Inc. CEO about the likely deployment of a virus vaccine to Americans by year-end buoyed sentiment, as did reports that a deal for TikTok in the U.S. is nearing a conclusion.
SoftBank Group Corp. surged after Nvidia Corp. agreed to buy the Japanese firm’s chip division Arm Ltd. for $40 billion, while Gilead Sciences Inc. will acquire Immunomedics Inc. for about $21 billion. Gold and crude ticked higher.
Global stocks are coming off the back of the first consecutive weeks of declines since March and traders remain on edge given the recent reassessment of valuations and volatility in options markets. The Fed is expected this week to maintain its dovish stance on policy as investors look for signs the global economy is recovering from the pandemic. Strategists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG suggested the recent pullback in the U.S. is nearing an end.
Read why Goldman, Deutsche say U.S. stock selloff may be nearing an end
“Unquestionably the virus story is the dominant macro pivot event, especially for equities, and is more likely to be dominated by optimism surrounding a vaccine,” said Stephen Innes, chief market strategist at AxiCorp Ltd. “It’s a busy week on the central bank front where Wednesday’s FOMC meeting will take center stage.”
The Pfizer comments suggested a shorter time frame for a vaccine than most public health officials have suggested. Earlier, AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford restarted a U.K. trial of their vaccine after the study was halted over concerns about a participant who fell ill.
Elsewhere, Japan’s ruling party chooses its new leader Monday. Yoshihide Suga is the favorite to replace Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Here are some key events coming up:
China industrial production and retail sales data is due on Tuesday.Wednesday sees the FOMC policy decision and news conference from Chair Jerome Powell.Bank of Japan, Bank Indonesia and Bank of England policy decisions come Thursday.Friday sees quadruple witching for U.S. markets when the quarterly expiration of futures and options on indexes and stocks happens on the same day.
These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
S&P 500 futures rose 1.1% as of 11:47 a.m. in Tokyo. The index ended Friday little changed.Japan’s Topix index gained 1%.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index advanced 0.6%.Shanghai Composite climbed 0.6%.South Korea’s Kospi index added 1.2%.Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.5%.Euro Stoxx 50 futures gained 0.4%.
Currencies
The yen was steady at 106.13 per dollar.The offshore yuan was at 6.8281 per dollar.The euro bought $1.1850, little changed.The kiwi rose 0.3% to 66.89 U.S. cents.
Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries was less than one basis point lower at 0.66%.Australia’s 10-year yield fell four basis points to 0.87%.
Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.6% to $37.57 a barrel.Gold was at $1,949.13 an ounce, up 0.4%.
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