The US stock markets are rallying ahead of this week’s Jackson Hole central bank summit with the growing consensus that any talk of tapering bond purchases will be undone by the Delta Variant.
The result was a 1.5% jump in the Nasdaq, a new record, along with a 0.6% and 0.8% gain for the Dow Jones and S&P 500.
Pfizer’s approval, economy weakens, China tech bottoms
Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) added 2.5% after receiving formal approval of its COVID-19 vaccine, this is on top of the emergency use at the current time. It is a big step forward towards mandatory vaccinations.
The US market appears to be weakening with the services PMI falling to 55.2 from 59.9 and manufacturing to 55.4. On the positive side, home sales continue to surprise, up 2%.
The Chinese government crackdown on big tech appears in its infancy but shares are turning the corner with the Shanghai Composite improving 1.5% and Tencent (HKG: 0700) adding 2.0%.
US stock market movers
Here’s how other popular US stocks started the week on Monday.
- Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) up 7.5%
- NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) up 5.5%
- Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) up 3.8%
- Costco (NASDAQ: COST) down 0.9%
- Etsy (NASDAQ: ETSY) down 1.4%
- Peloton (NASDAQ: PTON) down 1.4%
Back home on the ASX, the S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is expected to follow US markets higher at the open on Tuesday.
SEEK Limited (ASX: SEK), Nanosonics Ltd (ASX: NAN) and Kogan.com Ltd (ASX: KGN) are all set to report, as per Rask Media’s ASX reporting season calendar.
