All hopes for next year - everything from stock market returns to restaurant bookings - are bound up with the view that vaccines will gradually restore normality to a pandemic-ravaged world, - Reuters reports.
The end of the holiday season should lend momentum to vaccine rollouts. The United States, Russia, Britain and the European Union have started inoculations, while developing countries are testing storage and transport facilities.
But there could be more pain before the gains kick in.
As hospitals from London to Los Angeles overflow amid the emergence of a fast-spreading COVID-19 variant, tighter lockdowns, travel bans and remote schooling look inevitable, meaning the setbacks seen to economic growth at the end of the year could extend into January.
2/BIG BANG BREXIT
On Monday, Europe will see its biggest transfer of share trading in over two decades after Britain’s automatic access to the European Union’s financial markets ends on Dec. 31.
While the Brexit trade deal agreed on Christmas Eve set rules for industries such as fishing and agriculture, it did not cover Britain’s finance sector, which will soon get its first taste of the new regime.
Years of preparations since the 2016 Brexit referendum mean the transition of euro-denominated shares and derivatives from Britain should go smoothly. Still, it will be a test for the interest rate derivatives market - the Bank of England has warned of disruptions to swaps trading worth $200 billion.
Regulators have mostly downplayed risks, but they will be on high alert nonetheless. Once the “big bang event”, as described by one industry executive, is out of the way, markets can focus on the longer-term implications for the City of London.
