Stocks, Equity Futures Climb; Dollar Edges Lower: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. equity futures pushed higher with most Asian stocks Monday after President Donald Trump signed a coronavirus stimulus package. The dollar ticked lower with Treasuries.

S&P 500 contracts climbed as the White House confirmed that Trump had approved the combined $2.3 trillion Covid-19 relief and government funding package. Shares advanced in Tokyo, Seoul and Shanghai. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index dipped and Treasury yields climbed. Oil was little changed and gold rose.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. slid in Hong Kong after its U.S.-listed shares tumbled the most ever on concern over China’s inquiry into alleged monopolistic practices. The company Monday boosted its share buyback program to $10 billion. Chinese regulators over the weekend ordered affiliate Ant Group Co. to return to its roots as a provider of payments services, a development that threatens to clip its growth.

Elsewhere, the pound fluctuated after the U.K. last week clinched an historic Brexit trade deal with the European Union.

The signing of the bill averts a further delay in U.S. stimulus and bolsters some of the optimism that drove global stocks to a record this month. The president had earlier demanded Congress boost stimulus checks to $2,000 from $600, threatening to leave the legislation in limbo. Trump said in a statement announcing the signing that the GOP Senate had agreed to vote on increasing the $600 individual payments.

The stimulus “could be supportive of the market, supportive of the U.S. economy,” said Suresh Tantia, strategist at Credit Suisse Group AG. “Next year all the building blocks are there for markets to continue this rally.”

On the coronavirus front, more restrictions are being imposed to fight the spread of the new, more infectious strain. Japan is among the latest to act, banning the entry of most foreigners through the end of January. Meanwhile, the European Union kicked off a continent-wide vaccination campaign less than a week after clearing a shot developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE.

In cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin kept rallying over the festive break, surging past $28,000 for the first time before retreating.

Here are some key events coming up:

• U.S. pending home sales and goods trade balance data are due Wednesday.
• U.S. initial jobless claims figures are published Thursday.
• Most global stock markets are closed Friday for New Year’s Day.

These are the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• S&P 500 futures rose 0.6% as of 13:15 p.m. in Tokyo. The S&P 500 Index rose 0.4% on Thursday.
• Japan’s Topix Index rose 0.4%
• South Korea’s Kospi Index climbed 0.6%.
• Hang Seng Index was little changed.
• Shanghai Composite index rose 0.3%

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.1%.
• The yen slid 0.1% to 103.55 per dollar.
• The euro rose 0.2% to $1.2211.
• The pound was little changed at $1.3558.
• The offshore yuan was at 6.5227 per dollar, down 0.2%.
• The Aussie was little changed at 76.10 U.S. cents.

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose about two basis point to 0.94%.

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.3% to $48.10 a barrel.
• Gold advanced 0.6% to $1,895 an ounce.

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