- Concerns of economic risks from measures to regulate the new variant outweighed optimism about vaccine efficacy, sending US futures down. The dollar rose, while Treasuries and crude oil fell.
- The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ 100 extended their advances, while European markets erased early gains to trade little changed.
- Even as China's Evergrande Group and Kaisa Group holdings officially defaulted on their dollar loans, Asian stocks rose.
- The pound fell as Goldman Sachs pushed back its forecast for a UK rate hike. Business groups urged the government to intervene after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced restrictions to halt the spread of the variant, which could cost the economy up to £2 billion ($2.6 billion) per month, according to sources.
- In its early stages, Omicron is 4.2 times more transmissible than the Delta version, according to research.
- PBoC raises the forex RRR by 2ppt December 15th. (Yuan weakened)
- BoJ is said to see a lowering of corporate debt buying as likely, according to people familiar with the matter.
- Market bets on a 15 basis point increase in the Bank of England's interest rate next week have dropped to 41%, down from 46% on Wednesday and nearly 70% at the start of last week.
- The ECB could accept an APP envelope or a time-limited rise with more frequent reviews - Sources
- Fitch downgrades Evergrande and subsidiaries to restricted default.
- SenseTime, a Chinese AI company, will be blacklisted by the US over Xinjiang before its IPO. - FT
