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·         Dollar drops in choppy trading, investors rebalance for month-end

 

The safe-haven U.S. dollar fell on Thursday in choppy trading and riskier currencies including the Australian dollar reversed earlier losses as stocks rebounded, and as investors repositioned portfolios for month-end.

 

The dollar was boosted by safety buying earlier this week on concerns that U.S. fiscal stimulus will not be as large as originally hoped, and due to the continuing spread of COVID-19 as countries struggle to roll out vaccines.

 

But it gave up earlier gains on Thursday as stocks rose, boosted by a reversal of declines in mega-cap technology stocks.

 

“There’s such a tug of war right now between the longer-term momentum…and the shorter-term term phenomenon of maybe a dollar short squeeze,” said Erik Nelson, a macro strategist at Wells Fargo in New York

 

The dollar has rebounded from three-year lows reached earlier this month, with the recent decline viewed as having run too far too fast.

 

The dollar index against a basket of currencies is up more than 0.50% this month after falling more than 6% last year. It was last down 0.13% on the day at 90.53.

 

This week investors also have been rebalancing portfolios for month-end, which has boosted demand for the U.S. currency.

 

·         U.S. Economy Shrank in 2020 Despite Fourth-Quarter Growth

 

The U.S. economy shrank in 2020 for the first time since the financial crisis, but grew rapidly in the fourth quarter and is forecast to continue recovering following its worst year since the 1940s.

 

A strong rebound in the second half of 2020 wasn’t enough to overcome the economic shock created by the pandemic earlier in the year. Measured year-over-year, the economy contracted 3.5% last year, the largest decline since just after World War II and the first since 2009 in the wake of the financial crisis. Measured from the fourth quarter to the same quarter a year earlier the economy shrank 2.5%.

 

Fourth-quarter U.S. gross domestic product—the value of all goods and services produced across the economy, adjusted for seasonality and inflation—grew at a 4% annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. That joined a record 33.4% annual rate of growth in the third quarter to further reduce losses from earlier in the pandemic.

 

 

Global Cases: 101.98 (+580,957)

 

Global Deaths: 2.19M (+15,769)

 

No. 1

 

U.S. Cases: 26.32M (+149,081)

U.S. Deaths: 443.369 (+3,508)

 

 

 

No. 2 -6

 

India Cases: 10.72M (+18,940)

 

Brazil Cases: 9.06M (60,301)

 

Russia Cases: 3.79M (+19,138)

 

UK Cases: 3.74M (+28,680)

 

France Cases: 3.13 (+23,770)

 

 

 

Asian Updates:

 

No. 37

 

Japan Cases: 375,607 (+3,927)

Japan Deaths: 5,361 (+109)

 

 

 

No. 71

 

Myanmar Cases: 139,152 (+350)

Myanmar Deaths: 3,103 (+14)

 

 

 

No. 83

 

China Cases: 89,326 (+54)

China Deaths: 4,636

 

 No. 86

 

South Korea Cases: 76,926 (+497)

South Korea Deaths: 1,386 (+8)

 

 

 

No. 120

 

Thailand Cases: 16,221 (+756)

Thailand Deaths: 76

 

·         Novavax says Covid vaccine is more than 89% effective

 

Biotech firm Novavax said Thursday that its coronavirus vaccine was more than 89% effective in protecting against Covid-19 in its phase three clinical trial conducted in the United Kingdom.

 

·         Exclusive: Georgia election board member to seek state AG probe of Trump

 

The lone Democrat on Georgia’s state election board plans to introduce a motion next month urging state attorney general Chris Carr to open a criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results.

 

·         Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio will not run for Senate in 2022

 

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio will not run next year for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Rob Portman, a fellow Republican who has announced he will retire, Jordan’s campaign spokesman said Thursday.

 

·         Biden reopens online health insurance marketplaces, citing 'damage' from Trump

 

U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday reopened the nation’s online health insurance marketplace for people who cannot obtain coverage through their employers, in a move he said was aimed at undoing “damage” done by his predecessor Donald Trump.

 

In an executive order, Biden restored access to healthcare.gov, allowing Americans to sign up for insurance through the government exchange from Feb. 15 to May 15, the White House said. The program is normally accessible for just six weeks in the fall.

 

·         Biden’s pause on Gulf weapons sales foreshadows a tougher U.S.-Saudi relationship

 

The administration of President Joe Biden is pausing weapons sales to Gulf allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as part of a broader review of multibillion-dollar arms agreements made under the Trump administration.

 

·         Pentagon uncertain on pullback date for U.S. troops in Afghanistan

 

·         White House monitoring situation involving GameStop, other firms

 

The White House and Treasury Department are monitoring the situation involving GameStop and other companies that have seen sharp gains on the stock market, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday.

 

Shares of both GameStop and AMC Entertainment Holdings more than doubled on Wednesday, forcing hedge funds to take heavy losses and sparking calls for scrutiny of anonymous stock market trading posts on social media.

 

·         Robinhood CEO says it limited buying in GameStop to ‘protect the firm and protect our customers’

 

obinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said Robinhood’s move to stop trading in certain speculative names was in the best interest of the company and its millions of users.

 

“In order to protect the firm and protect our customers we had to limit buying in these stocks,” Tenev told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin Thursday evening.

 

“Robinhood is a brokerage firm, we have lots of financial requirements. We have SEC net capital requirements and clearing house deposits. So that’s money that we have to deposit at various clearing houses. Some of these requirements fluctuate quite a bit based on volatility in the market and they can be substantial in the current environment where there’s a lot of volatility and a lot of concentrated activity in these names that have been going viral on social media,” said Tenev.

 

Tenev denied there was any existing liquidity issue at the firm and said Robinhood had tapped credit lines as a proactive measure.

 

·         UK PM Johnson 'immensely proud' as visa offer for Hong Kong citizens launches

 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday hailed a new visa scheme that offers qualifying Hong Kong citizens a route to British citizenship - a programme launched in response to China’s new security laws in the former colony.

 

·         Japan's jobless rate steady at 2.9% in December: government

 

Japan’s jobless rate held steady at 2.9% in December and the availability of jobs was unchanged from the previous month, government data showed on Friday.

 

 

·         Oil eases as demand worries offset weaker dollar, big storage draw

 

Oil eased on Thursday as the market focused more on concerns that delays to vaccine rollouts and fresh travel curbs could depress demand than the impact of a weaker dollar and a big U.S. crude inventory drawdown.

 

Brent futures for March delivery fell 28 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $55.53 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude ended 51 cents, or 1.0%, lower at $52.34.

 

With the Brent March contract expiring on Friday, the premium of the Brent front-month over the second month rose to its highest level since February 2020 for a fourth day in a row.

 

 

Reference: Reuters, CNBC