The global stock price index is declining following futures contracts in the US, and government bonds yield is falling as investors estimate a slowdown in the EU’s economic recovery.
The Stoxx 600 index decreased by 0.2%, with shares of technology companies and automakers in the green zone. US 10-year Treasury bonds yield fell to 1.68% from its highest level in about 14 months. In Asia, stocks have been traded in different directions: Japanese indices fell, while the Chinese showed growth. Oil resumed its decline after the strongest weekly decline since October.
Investors are wary of the escalating confrontation between the EU and the UK over the supply of the vaccine from AstraZeneca. According to a high-ranking EU official, Brussels will probably refuse to allow AstraZeneca Plc vaccines to be exported to the UK until the drug manufacturer meets its delivery obligations to the 27-nation bloc. The EU claims that the company’s contracts aren’t being complied with and that all the drugs and ingredients for the vaccine produced at the European factories will be reserved for local deliveries.
Astra is expected to deliver 30 million doses of the vaccine to the EU in the first quarter, less than half of what was originally promised. The EU is trying to speed up the slow start of the vaccination campaign and has promised to immunize 70% of the adult population by the end of September. However, according to the BCVT, the European bloc has vaccinated only 12% of the population for all the time which is less than a third of what was done in the UK.
The situation is exacerbated by rumors of a new wave of coronavirus pandemic. Some European countries are reintroducing restriction. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson said that holiday trips this summer are “extremely unlikely”.
Main market quotes:
- S&P 500 (F) 3,898.12 -1.63 (-0.04%)
- Dow Jones 32,627.97 -234.33 (-0.71%)
- DAX 14,632.45 +11.45 (+0.08%)
- FTSE 100 6,685.45 -23.26 (-0.35%)
- USD Index 91,907 -0.018 (-0.02%)
