Hong Kong
Asian markets mostly rose Friday but traders trod uneasily as they were caught between long-term optimism over a virus vaccine and the immediate horror of surging virus infections and deaths across the world. Trading floors were also battling a similar problem with Washington as the Treasury and Federal Reserve knocked heads over extending lending measures, just as lawmakers prepared to restart stimulus talks. Breakthroughs on a drug to fight coronavirus, along with Joe Biden’s election win, have fired a rally in global equities this month as investors bet that life can begin to get back to a semblance of normality in the new year. But the wind has been taken out of their sails by a stream of desperate figures showing the disease running wild, setting new records in the United States and Europe while spiking in several other countries.
