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Russia is retaliating against US sanctions

Russia to expel US diplomats proportionally to US decision to expel Russian diplomats

The US imposed sanctions on Russia yesterday including making it more difficult for them to take part in the global economy if it continued its disruptive actions including in cyberspace and in Ukraine. The US is blaming the countries intelligence agency for hacking operations that breached American government agencies and the nations largest companies.
Russia is responding by expelling US diplomats proportionally to the amount of Russian diplomats expelled by the US. They also warn that is is only a little of what they can do.  They warn that they can hurt the United States economically if Washington wants to continue their “sanctions spiral”.
The US threatened to squeeze Russia’s ability to borrow money on global markets if the tensions escalate. However, the Russian foreign minister says that they are confident that they will be able to tap the global debt market this year.
Tensions are rising with the Biden administration.

European shares end the day/week higher

German Dax makes new all time highs

The German Dax broke higher today and in the process moved to a new all time high at 15473.83.  The price of the index had been waffling up and down over the last 8 trading days in a non-trending market before breaking higher and running to the upside.
German Dax makes new all time highs
France’s CAC also moved to new highs for the week and trades at the highest level since December 2000.  The high price reached 6299.56.  The new high close is at 6287.07.
A look at the final numbers shows:
  • German DAX, +1.34%
  • Francis CAC, +0.85%
  • UKs FTSE 100, +0.5%
  • Spain’s Ibex +0.5%
  • Italy’s FTSE MIB, +0.88%
European shares
For the week, the France’s CAC led the way with a gain of 1.91%. The final numbers for the week show:

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2021 the year of pharma: A look at Moderna and Pfizer stocks

An overview of Moderna and Pfizer stocks

AX
2020 was all about COVID-19, the brand-new pandemic which took the world by storm, sweeping through continents and debilitating countries. 21st-century medicine came to the rescue, developing vaccines to fight the virus. Fast forward to 2021, the hot topic is the COVID-19 vaccine, or rather vaccines.

The infamous vaccine is not just ‘one’ vaccine, a number of pharmaceutical companies have developed different vaccines which are being rolled out in different countries. In fact, vaccines are a gigantic business at the moment highly affecting the status of the companies producing and selling them. Pfizer and Moderna became household names, celebrities one might say as anxious consumers hoped to see light at the end of the COVID-tunnel.

Where there’s business there’s money, and where there’s money there are opportunists. Investors spent their first lockdown studying every possible scenario for companies such as Pfizer and Moderna, foreseeing a major spike in their stocks, provided they indeed become saviors of the world.

Let’s take a look at how these companies have performed in light of releasing the vaccines and how their stocks have been affected. (more…)

Nikkei 225 closes higher by 0.14% at 29,683.37

Asian equities climb towards the end of the week

The Topix is also seen up 0.1% as stocks in Asia are buoyed by the gains in Wall Street overnight, though the gains in Japan are relatively mild. Elsewhere, China’s record GDP data, though failing to impress, is enough to keep sentiment buoyed as well.

Both the Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite indices are up 0.9% currently.
Elsewhere, US futures are pulling back a little after the gains yesterday amid some stabilisation in Treasury yields. S&P 500 futures are seen down 0.1%.

China March Industrial production +14.1% y/y (expected +18%) + retails sales & investment data

China ‘activity’ data for March 2021

Industrial Production +14.1% y/y  MISS

  • expected 18.0%

Industrial Production YTD to March +24.5% y/y MISS

  • expected 26.5%, prior was 35.1%

Fixed Assets (excluding rural) YTD +25.6% y/y MISS

  • expected 26.0%, prior was 35.0%

Retail Sales +34.2% y/y BEAT

  • expected 28.0%

Retail Sales YTD +33.9% y/y BEAT

  • expected 31.7%, prior was 33.8%

Retail sales with the beat is indicative of a recovery in domestic consumption. Good news for China which, as is so often the case, has been leaning on exports and the property market to keep the fire in the economy.

 more to come