Dow futures jumped in hopes of an approval of a stimulus package. Investors and traders are waiting for further U.S. developments.
Yesterday, Drew Hammill, deputy chief of staff to Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, tweeted that she and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke for 40 minutes about an impending agreement on a comprehensive stimulus bill.
He also added that the House Speaker is discussing with the other members in Congress on how to assist small businesses in efficiently receiving more financial support in the COVID-19 pandemic.
At 4:17 pm today, the Speaker held a call w/ Chairs @NydiaVelazquez, @RepMaxineWaters & @stevenmnuchin1 to discuss how restaurants, small stages & other small businesses can gain better access to capital as well as how SBA can more adequately assist small businesses during COVID.
— Drew Hammill (@Drew_Hammill) October 8, 2020
Based on the Dow futures’ performance, it seems that traders have been speculating that there might be a hope of a Dow Jones rally to end the week. Keith Buchanan, portfolio manager at GLOBALT told CNBC:
“Stimulus talks are really dictating the market action on a day-to-day basis.”
Mainland Chinese stocks closed on a positive note
Over in the Asian markets, we see that China went back to trading after spending the holidays. The Shanghai Composite rose 1.68% to about 3,272.08 while the Shenzhen component soared almost 3% to around 13,289.26.
The Caixin/Markit services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) has been released for September, and China received a reading of 54.8, which indicates expansion.
However, other markets were mixed with the U.S. current sentiments. The Hang Seng index closed 0.31 in Hong Kong despite a market debut from Everest Medicines, with its shares jumping over 30%.
The Nikkei 225 slipped 0.12% on the day to 23,619.69 while the Topix index closed 0.49% lower at 1,647.38 over in Japan while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 ended its trading day flat at 6,102.20.
European stocks rise amid slowdown in economic growth
Over in Europe, a report from the Office for National Statistics said that the U.K. economy grew 2.1% in August. The London Stock Exchange also confirmed that they are in exclusive discussions to sell Milan’s Borsa Italiana stock exchange to Euronext for 4.3 billion euros [AU$7 billion].
As far as individual stocks are concerned, Pandora and Rolls-Royce were in the spotlight today, gaining more than 14% while Danish insurer Tryg dropped almost 3% as per CNBC.
If the U.S. stimulus package miraculously gets approved this week despite President Donald Trump putting negotiations on hold, traders are going to be in a roller-coaster moving forward.
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