London/Sydney — Stocks began the week with robust gains as investors gauged the chance of added US fiscal and monetary stimulus, while the British pound rose as a last-gasp extension to Brexit talks dodged a difficult divorce.
Progress on coronavirus vaccines also cheered risk sentiment, with the first doses shipping across the US as part of an effort to inoculate more than 100-million people by the end of March. Japan's Nikkei rose 0.3% as a survey showed the mood among Japanese businesses had improved in the December quarter.
At this stage, he said, failure would probably stem from either Brussels or London pushing the envelope a bit too far, too late to get an agreement done in time. An added hurdle for the dollar will be the Federal Reserve's policy meeting on December 15 and 16. The market is assuming the central bank will merely refine its forward guidance on policy rather than buying more bonds or “twisting” its portfolio to add more longer-dated debt.