Asian equities are expected to trade sideways on the open as liquidity is thin with Wall Street on holiday. U.S. futures remained open for trade despite the closure of cash markets, with the S&P futures partially reversing the gains seen yesterday during the Asian session.
Traders will be closely paying attention as the new wave of COVID across Europe and the U.K. With that on the radar, participants could start hedging some exposure on risk assets and COVID sensitive assets and sectors ahead weekend. Reports are noting that the U.K. is set to stop some flights from Africa over covid variant worries. Further restrictions and lockdowns in Europe could trigger some extra supply chain bottlenecks and affect trade, inflation, and economic recovery in the world. Worth noting that China’s increasingly extreme Covid Zero policies are standing in the way of a full recovery for the shipping industry and prolonging a crisis that’s snarled ports and emptied shelves worldwide. Vessels that have renewed their crew elsewhere have to wait two weeks before they’re allowed to port in China.
