Asian Stock Market: Bulls struggle to cheer vaccine-backed optimism

• Asian shares trade mixed as vaccine hopes combat virus woes.
• Headlines from China offer extra positives to risks, RBA minutes repeat “no negative rates”.
• US Retail Sales, vaccine/virus updates will be important to watch.

Asian equities fail to keep the early-day gains as vaccine-led positive sentiment fails to encounter fresh fears from the coronavirus (COVID-19) wave 2.0. The mood fails to offer any clear direction to the MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan whereas Japan’s Nikkei 225 adds 0.30% ahead of Tuesday’s European session.

After the news of Moderna’s 94.5% effective rate and easy to distribute nature, unveiled during the late-stage trials, Johnson and Johnson also crossed wires, via AP News, to convey the final stages of experiments for its two-dose vaccine. Further, Pfizer also mentioned that it is ready to start the COVID-19 pilot program in four US states. Overall, the global pharmaceutical companies are ramping up efforts to avail the pandemic’s cure, which in turn helps markets.

Read: S&P 500 Futures hold 3,600, print mild losses amid vaccine hopes, virus woes

Though, the results for the vaccine are still awaited and may take a few more months, even if the current pace of research continues, to tackle the deadly virus. Such concerns weigh on the trading sentiment at a time when covid is firming up the grips in a few US states and lead them towards another round of activity restrictions.

On the positive side, China’s Securities Regulator conveys hopes of fresh US-China relations with Joe Biden’s victory while the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences backs Beijing to set an average growth rate of 5.0% during 2021-25. Even so, stocks in China remain mildly negative by press time.

Australia’s ASX 200 enjoys RBA Minutes, reiterating the no to negative rates, with mild gains whereas New Zealand’s NZX 50 prints small losses after Trade Minister Damien O'Connor conveys worries about the strong local currency considering the export-oriented nature of the economy.

South Korea’s KOSPI ignored softer than the previous reading of October month’s Trade Balance to rise 0.20% whereas Indonesia’s IDX Composite bucks the trend with over 1.0% gains news of Indonesian companies signing a deal with Australia crossed wires, via Reuters. Moving on, India’s BSE Sensex gains around 1.0% as the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)-led alliance marked a major victory in the latest state elections.

Moving on, October month Retail Sales for the US will accompany the key risk catalyst for fresh directions.