Asian equities mixed, US dollar close to two-and-a-half-year low

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asian stocks were mixed on Thursday after a choppy day of trading on Wall Street, in part thanks to a disappointing U.S. jobs report, as the greenback languished near 2- lows 1/2 years on the growing optimism of a coronavirus vaccine.

Britain became the first Western country to approve a COVID-19 vaccine, with 800,000 doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine available for those at high risk starting next week.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is holding its advisory committee meeting next week, while New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state’s first delivery, sufficient for 170,000 residents, was scheduled for December 15.

Hopes that the pandemic, which has so far killed nearly 1.5 million people worldwide, will finally be brought under control has sparked a resumption of risk in currency markets, with the Australian and New Zealand dollars advancing by compared to their American counterpart.

The dollar index slipped to a new 2-1 / 2 year low of 90.948 on Thursday and was last at 90.976. [FRX/]

“Currency investors are taking more risk after the latest vaccine breakthroughs, depending on the options,” Morgan Stanley said in a note.

Hopes for a US budget support package also fueled investor optimism.

But stock traders were less enthusiastic.

E-Mini futures for S & P500 were a bit weaker, as were Dow futures. Eurostoxx 50 futures fell 0.1%, German Dax futures fell 0.2% and FTSE London futures fell 0.4%.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei was unchanged while South Korea’s KOSPI and Australia’s benchmark were around 0.4% higher each. Chinese stocks opened a little lower, as the blue chip CSI300 fell 0.2%. New Zealand’s shares were also lower.

That left the MSCI’s largest Asia-Pacific stock index outside of Japan up 0.4% after two straight days of gains.

“Markets are likely to get complicated from here,” said Michael Frazis, portfolio manager at Frazis Capital Partners in Sydney.

“The price of the vaccine is getting higher and higher. A few months ago, no one knew how deep the coronavirus would be, or what the outcome of the election was. Now the two sources of uncertainty have been removed. “

Concerns about the slowing U.S. economy weighed on stocks after U.S. private payrolls showed fewer jobs than expected were added in November as growth in new COVID-19 infections resulted in additional trade restrictions.

Overnight, Wall Street shifted between red and green territories, but eventually ended up a little firmer. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 gained 0.2% each, while the high tech Nasdaq barely moved.

In currencies, the risk-sensitive Australian hit an over two-year high of $ 0.7420 overnight and was last at $ 0.7410. Its kiwi cousin was the last at $ 0.7063, near the highest since May 2018.

The euro hit $ 1.2118, after hitting its highest level since late April 2018 in yesterday’s trading.

In commodities, oil prices fell on Thursday as producers including Saudi Arabia and Russia objected to the need to extend the record production cuts put in place in the first wave of the pandemic COVID-19. [O/R]

Brent fell 9 cents to $ 48.16 a barrel while US light crude fell 14 cents to $ 45.14.

Gold was slightly firmer at $ 1,832.6 an ounce.