The week is set to end quietly today, with just the Michigan consumer sentiment preliminary survey for November due in the United States. The forecast is for consumer sentiment to have increased to 72.4.
Earlier today Australia published its consumer inflation expectations for November, which climbed to 4.6%.
In Europe, the eurozone delivered a better than expected industrial production report for September at 5.2%.
On the Covid-19 front, AstraZeneca announced it will finally start selling its vaccine at a profit. The company had made a commitment to sell its jab at a price that only covers the production cost previously. It stated that this would remain the case for low-income countries, but developed economies will see a slight increase in the price of the Oxford vaccine in next year’s orders.
AstraZeneca also recently said that it is opening an entire department dedicated to the coronavirus and other respiratory conditions. The company’s shares jumped in value, thanks to both of these announcements.
In other news, there is increased turmoil in Eastern Europe. Russia has stationed some of its military along the border with Ukraine again, prompting the United States and other countries to worry that it might invade Ukraine once more.
Russia is also amping up its cooperation with ally Belarus, whose reportedly illegitimately chosen President Lukashenko is threatening to cut the supply of natural gas towards Poland (and the rest of the EU) on account of European sanctions against him.
The EU might find itself in a position where it needs to compromise its political and security concerns in order to permit Russia to open Nord Stream 2 and supply more gas to the continent.
With not much else influencing the markets today, US stock indices will climb higher due to ample risk appetite.
