KEY THEMES
It’s quite fascinating how investor sentiment can change in just one minute, literally. Yesterday, global investors rejoiced about the news of COVID-19 vaccine developed to Pfizer (please read the news below). Global markets (stocks and oil included) rose sharply as investors saw a glimpse of hope that a second wave of COVID-19 may not be as severe, if at all. We prefer to be cautiously optimistic with such market reaction. We all know that a vaccine was about to be announced over the coming few weeks as confirmed by the U.S. President Trump in one of his presidential debates. So, it’s not really news that a vaccine is out all of a sudden, but investors treated it as such. That said, we continue to prefer defensive sectors as we reiterated yesterday (education, health care, and telecom) in addition to banks and real estate stocks with no or minimal exposure to tourism.