tock market concerns about Omicron continue to ease after US infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci said initial data on the new variant appeared to be encouraging.
The FTSE 100 index rose another 1% after Asia markets also benefited from strong trade figures in China.
Live updates
London shares continued their surge today up until the close of play — the FTSE is up 107 points at 7339. A decent effort.
Spreadex said in a note: “Mostly this is down to it becoming clearer that the Omicron variant is not going to have the negative impact many were worried about last week, according to multiple officials.
These gains were further solidified during the afternoon as GSK announced that their drug is effective against this new strain.”
Watch for this confidence to evaporate at the slightest suggestion that Omicron is a) rife b) really fierce.
One other curiosity: Moonpig shares are up 30p, more than 9%, to 356p.
We don’t know why, but summat must be up.
Bottlenecks ease, says Deutsche
How bad is the supply chain crisis? The pointy heads at Deutsche Bank have created a bottleneck monitor to look at goods moved with ships, trucks and airplanes.
Its first edition examines the US and claims there is a “tentative easing” in bottlenecks, notably in sea freight.
The bank says: “There is also a notable easing in road haulage conditions. If this improvement persists, it would have material implications for the outlook next year. We will update our monitor regularly.”
Dow Jones recovers Omicron losses
Shares in the US are also going the right way. The Dow Jones is up more than 500 points at 35,748. So it has recovered what it lost since Omicron first emerged and put the frighteners on investors.
FTSE 100: keeps on going
Mining shares are strongly in fashion today. Anglo American is the biggest riser in the FTSE, up more than 6%.
Rio Tinto, Evraz and Glencore are also enjoying a day in the sun.
Just now the FTSE 100 is up 95 points at 7332. It’s having a good few days.
Billionaires wealth rising at fastest rate ever
The rich are still getting richer, says a report just out on inequality.
The World Inequality Report says 2020 saw the fastest increase in the wealth of billionaires, ever.
According to the report, the richest 10% have 52% of global income.
Lucas Chanel of the World Inequality Lab said: “After 18 months of Covid-19, the world is even more polarised.”
House and jobs markets put pressure on Bank of England
FIRM evidence that the economy was performing strongly before the emergence of the Omicron variant emerged today, giving Bank of England policy makers another headache.
The Bank is weighing up whether it dare put up interest rates to head-off soaring inflation. It remains concerned that doing so would hit the economic recovery.
Today there were strong signals from the banking, housing and recruitment sectors that the UK was booming, at least until very recently.
Halifax reported that house prices are rising at the fastest rate since 2006; 1% in November alone and 3.4% in the last quarter.
GSK drug defeats omicron, report
GSK today said its antibody treatment for Covid-19 is effective against omicron despite the new variant’s high level of mutations.
The drug-maker reported results of pre-clinical studies carried out in a laboratory which suggest sotrovimab retains activity against all 37 mutations so far identified in the virus coat’s spike protein.
The findings, which have not been peer review and were published in an update to the stock market, contributed to a rally across world markets which lifted the FTSE100 to its highest level since omicron’s discovery spooked investors last month.
Astra piles another £3bn into rare diseases
AstraZeneca has further expanded its drive into the market for expensive to make (and therefore expensive to try to copy) treatments for complex rare diseases.
It has signed a deal worth a potential $3.6bn with California’s Ionis to bring a promising treatment for an incurable liver condition to market.
Ionis was launched by the former head of research at Astra’s rival GSK.
Comment: Elliott doesn’t just park its tanks.. it fires them
Our daily column in the paper focuses on the battle at SSE today:
“Of course, Elliott Advisors isn’t going quietly.
The activist is kicking up an almighty fuss after SSE declined to take its private advice and spin-off its renewables business.
Not only does the decision beggar belief, keeping SSE intact calls into question the competence of management, we are told. Time to get in some new directors who know what they are doing, say Elliott.
This is all textbook stuff.”
SSE responds to latest Elliott calls
Safe to say, they’re not hugely impressed.
CEO Alistair Phillips-Davies said: “Separation risks valuable growth options across the clean energy value chain, would jeopardise our ability to finance and deliver the major infrastructure the UK needs to create jobs and achieve net zero, and would lose shared skills that benefit the group.
“Separation does not support the financing of our core growth businesses and would rule out adjacent growth options, as well as reducing the resilience of the business model – it is not the right outcome to maximise value for shareholders or our other stakeholders.”
