China reported 209 new confirmed coronavirus cases for Dec. 27, up from 200 a day earlier, mostly in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, where Xian, the provincial capital, is in lockdown.In Europe, the British government said England would not get any new COVID-19 restrictions before the end of 2021, while the French government said it would tighten measures, though there will be no curfew for New Year's Eve and schools will reopen as planned in early January.
"Money growth will slow in 2022, but the market strongly doubts that the ECB and the Fed are willing to truly tighten financial conditions," said Arne Petimezas, analyst at AFS Group in Amsterdam. "They now face a trade-off between controlling inflation or keeping this party going." Oil prices settled higher on Tuesday, with Brent crude ending the session near $80 a barrel despite the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, supported by supply outages and expectations that U.S. inventories fell last week.Gold retreated after hitting a one-month high on inflation worries and spot palladium recovered following a drop of more than 3%.Bitcoin last fell 6.07%.
U.S. junk spreads, the premium investors demand to hold high-yield corporate debt over risk-free Treasuries, fell to 302 basis points as of late Monday, the tightest since July 2007, based on the ICE BofA U.S. High Yield Index .MERH0A0.