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Investing.com – Joe Biden was nominated for the Democratic presidential nomination and delivered a speech promising to end the darkness of today. Europe’s economy slowed in August, but sterling rallied after better-than-expected business sentiment and retail sales. The US stock market will open largely unchanged while companies Pfizer (NYSE 🙂 and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) are busy testing vaccines. Here’s what you need to know about the financial market on Friday, August 21st.
1. Biden seeks to lead Americans out of the “darkness”
Joe Biden ended the virtual Democratic rally with a speech in which he promised to lead the United States out of the “darkness” without ever mentioning President Donald Trump by name.
“The ballots have character, compassion, decency, science, democracy. They are all on the ballots, ”Biden said.
Trump tweeted that Biden’s words belied his 47-year political record. Opinion polls this week showed Trump narrowed his lead over Biden slightly to about 8 percentage points.
2. Europe’s recovery slows down after a new wave of infections
European economic recovery slowed this month as renewed travel restrictions disrupted plans to organize a full summer tourist season.
For the first time in three months, business activity slowed, according to preliminary data from the IHS Markit Consolidated Purchasing Managers Index. The PMI for the euro area fell from 54.9 to 51.6, mainly due to the services sector.
German manufacturing, the traditional locomotive of economic growth in the region, remained strong, with the PMI index rising from 51.0 to 53.0.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday said there would be no return to general quarantine due to the Covid-19 epidemic.
3. UK recovery is on track, but borrowing is on the rise
Better news was on the other side of the Channel. In the UK, the aggregate PMI has recovered to over 60, which means a stronger recovery, albeit after the quarantine that was introduced in the eurozone later and was stronger.
July retail sales were also better-than-expected, growing 3.6% month-on-month and 1.4% year-on-year. They are now ahead of pre-crisis levels for the first time. The government also attracted less borrowed funds in July than analysts expected, although newspapers reported that national debt exceeded £ 2 trillion ($ 2.6 trillion) for the first time.
The pound rose against the euro, ignoring the predictable end of yet another fruitless round of Brexit trade negotiations with the EU, but fell from seven-month highs against the dollar.
4. The US stock market is set for correction
The American market will open with a decline, and there are few events in the calendar today that could push it in any direction.
The Dow futures contract fell 0.67% at 11:20 pm ET, the S&P 500 futures also fell 0.70%, and the 100 futures contract fell 0.60%.
Stocks likely to be in the spotlight today include Ross Stores (NASDAQ :), which defied gloomy expectations by posting quarterly earnings after Thursday’s close. Farm equipment manufacturer Deere (NYSE 🙂 and retailer Foot Locker (NYSE 🙂 reports before opening.
LYFT Inc (NASDAQ:)t и Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE 🙂 may gain attention after winning a California court case that could force them to retrain their drivers as full-time employees.
Baker Hughes’ weekly oil and gas rig count will conclude the week.
5. Pfizer Will Submit Antiviral Vaccine In October For Approval
Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech announced that in October, following the publication of fresh data from an early study of an experimental Covid-19 vaccine, they are ready to submit the results to regulatory authorities.
Both companies said their vaccine was administered to trial participants with mostly no side effects, although less than 20% of people had mild to moderate fever.
Johnson & Johnson said it plans to test its experimental Covid-19 drug in 60,000 people during a Phase 3 trial in September.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the number of new cases of the virus in the US rose to 46,500 on Wednesday, the highest in four days. However, the number of new infections across the country has been declining for almost a month.
Written by Jeffrey Smith
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