SINGAPORE — Stocks in Japan were set to trade higher at the Tuesday open as investors in Asia-Pacific react to positive coronavirus vaccine news from AstraZeneca as well as U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s choice of former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen as Treasury secretary.
Futures pointed to a higher open for Japanese stocks. The Nikkei futures contract in Chicago was at 25,950 while its counterpart in Osaka was at 25,700. That compared against the Nikkei 225’s last close at 25,527.37. Markets in Japan were closed on Monday for a holiday.
Elsewhere in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained about 0.9% in early trading.
Vaccine hopes
Investor focus on Tuesday will likely be on the continued positive momentum surrounding the race for a coronavirus vaccine. AstraZeneca said Monday interim analysis showed its coronavirus vaccine has an average efficacy of 70% in protecting against the virus.
That follows other encouraging vaccine results in recent weeks, with late-stage trial readouts from Pfizer–BioNTech and Moderna showing their respective Covid-19 vaccine candidates were about 95% effective.
Meanwhile, news that Biden has picked former U.S. Fed Chair Yellen to be Treasury secretary could also buoy investor sentiment on Tuesday. If confirmed by the Senate, she is set to be the first woman to lead the department.
“A strong spirit of cooperation between the Fed and Treasury is one thing of which we can now be assured,” Ray Attrill, head of foreign exchange strategy at National Australia Bank, wrote in a note.
Stocks rose overnight on Wall Street, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 327.79 points higher at 29.591.27. The S&P 500 ended its trading day 0.6% higher at 3,577.59, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.2% to close at 11,880.63.
Currencies
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was last at 92.518 following an earlier spike from levels below 92.4.
The Japanese yen traded at 104.50 per dollar after seeing levels below 104 against the greenback yesterday. The Australian dollar was at $0.73 following levels above $0.732 seen yesterday.
— CNBC’s Sam Meredith contributed to this report.
Source: CNBC