BREAKING: E.U. Aims at Big Tech, FDA Moderna Data Dump, IEA Report

Photo: Reuters

(Investing.com) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will release a data dump on Moderna’s stage three vaccine trial. The European Union (E.U.) laid out plans to regulate Big Tech more tightly; stocks are set to break a four-day losing streak as the Federal Reserve (Fed) starts a two-day meeting, and oil prices withstand another downward revision to global demand for next year.

FDA to release Moderna data assessment

The FDA will release its analysis of data from the stage three trial of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine, a preliminary step toward the granting of emergency use authorization, which may come by the end of the week.

The release comes a day after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio warned that the city may have to return to a full lockdown due to rising infection rates. “We're seeing the kind of level of infection that we haven't seen since May, and we have got to stop that momentum or else our hospital system will be threatened," de Blasio told CNN.

Tuesday’s data showed no let-up in the rates of deaths and hospitalizations due to Covid-19, with Johns Hopkins data showing the U.S. death toll passing 300,000.

E.U. moves on Big Tech 

The European Union added to Big Tech’s regulatory woes, publishing draft regulation on digital services and markets with provisions allowing it to break up companies if they repeatedly offend.

While the draft is likely to be revised significantly as it passes through the European decision-making process, it highlights the direction of travel for regulation of the major Internet platform companies, which are already facing tougher antitrust scrutiny in the U.S.

Stocks set to break four-day losing streak

U.S. stock markets look set to break a four-day losing streak later, with the futures contracts for all three major indices trading higher in the overnight session. Concerns about the ever-tighter lockdown across the U.S. is being balanced by residual belief in some form of fiscal stimulus being passed by the end of the week.

Chinese economy hits cruise control

The Chinese economy has reached cruise control. Industrial production and retail sales continued to grow in November, underlining the country’s status as the only major world economy likely to grow this year, but the rate of improvement has flattened out in the last couple of months. Industrial production growth stalled at 7% on the year, while retail sales growth accelerated modestly to 5.0%, below expectations. 

Oil prices absorb IEA demand warning

The International Energy Agency (IEA) trimmed its forecast for global oil demand by 100,000 barrels a day, but still said it expected a robust recovery in global demand in 2021, resulting in average demand of 96.9 million barrels a day.

Read more from the original article here.