(Reuters) – Oil steadied near a nine-month high on Friday on track for a seventh weekly gain in a row as investors focused on the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.
Pfizer has applied for approval in Japan for its vaccine, which is being used in the United Kingdom and the United States. The U.S. FDA is also working towards approving Moderna’s shot.
Brent crude was down 0.2%, at $51.38 at 0925 GMT, near the nine-month high of $51.90 hit on Thursday.

The US energy department is the latest agency to confirm it has been breached in what is being described as the worst-ever hack on the US government.
The department is responsible for managing US nuclear weapons, but said the arsenal’s security had not been compromised.
Tech giant Microsoft also said on Thursday that it had found malicious software in its systems.
The treasury and commerce departments are among the other agencies targeted in the sophisticated, months-long breach.

The volatile virtual currency has gained more than 170% this year amid stock market turmoil. On Wednesday Bitcoin jumped 4.5% to as much as $20,440 buoyed by demand from large investors keen on its potential for quick profits.

(Reuters) – Stocks scaled record heights, the dollar plumbed two-year lows and oil prices hit their strongest since March on Thursday, as monetary support and the hope of fiscal stimulus in the United States put traders in a festive mood.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.4% to an all-time high. Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.3% to sit just shy of a 29-year peak.
December S&P 500 futures were one point short of a record top and, after the Nasdaq printed a record close on Wednesday, Nasdaq 100 futures climbed higher into uncharted territory on Thursday. European futures rose.

MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has donated more than $4bn (£3bn) to food banks and emergency relief funds in four months.
In a blog post, Ms Scott said she wanted to help Americans who were struggling because of the pandemic.
Ms Scott is the world’s 18th-richest person, having seen her wealth climb $23.6bn this year to $60.7bn.
“This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote on Tuesday, adding that she had picked more than 380 charities to donate to having considered almost 6,500 organisations.

London-listed shares followed global markets on Wednesday as optimism around working vaccines raised hopes of an economic recovery, while investors also held out for a Brexit trade deal. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was up 0.4% by 0804 GMT, led by energy, healthcare and mining stocks;The domestically focused FTSE 250 index gained 0.3%. In company news, fashion retailer Superdry jumped 3.8% as it said interim Chief Executive Officer Julian Dunkerton would take the top job on a permanent basis and appointed industry veteran Silvana Bonello as its chief operating officer.

(Reuters) – Norway’s top three food retailers and wholesalers face fines amounting to a combined 21 billion Norwegian crowns ($2.4 billion) for breach of antitrust regulations, the Norwegian Competition Authority said on Tuesday. Norgesgruppen, Coop and Rema 1000 have cooperated in ways that may have resulted in inflated prices, the watchdog said.
The three have each employed staff to survey prices at stores operated by competitors, and similarly agreed to allow those surveyors access to their own stores, which they said resulted in fierce competition and lower prices.

(Reuters) – Asian stocks retreated on Tuesday as worries about increasing COVID-19 deaths and lockdowns overshadowed optimism about the roll-out of coronavirus vaccinations, just days after indexes hit record highs. EUROSTOXX 50 futures dipped 0.4% and FTSE futures fell 0.6%, indicating a weaker open for European stock markets. E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 were up 0.05%. Markets showed little reaction to China’s industrial output, which grew in line with expectations in November, expanding for an eighth straight month as an economic recovery gathered pace.

(Reuters) – Germany’s ruling coalition has agreed changes to a new energy law that aims to boost renewable power and help the country meet its goal of producing 65% of its electricity from green sources by 2030, parliamentary sources told Reuters.The energy law is now expected to go before a parliamentary committee on Tuesday ahead of votes in the lower house on Thursday and the upper house on Friday, with a view to enacting the legislation by Jan. 1, 2021, the sources said.

(Reuters) – Sterling kept overnight gains against the dollar and the euro on Monday, as talks for a post-Brexit trade deal between Britain and the European Union were set to continue.
Europe opened with stocks up 0.75% and the euro up on the dollar.
“We are going to give every chance to this agreement … which is still possible,” the European Union’s Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, told journalists before updating envoys from the 27 EU countries on Monday.

(Reuters) – Asian shares bounced back on Friday as progress on COVID-19 vaccines boosted investor sentiment, but tricky Brexit negotiations and U.S. stimulus talks capped gains in riskier assets. MSCI’s ex-Japan Asia-Pacific index rose 0.5%, on track for its sixth straight week of gains, while Japan’s Nikkei dropped 0.6%.
Investors bet on stronger economic growth next year as more countries prepare for vaccinations. U.S. authorities voted to endorse emergency use of Pfizer’s vaccine while doses of a COVID-19 vaccine made by China’s Sinovac Biotech SVA.O are rolling off a Brazilian production line.

(Reuters) – A group of 30 asset managers with more than $9 trillion under management have launched the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative on Friday to help clients ensure their portfolios are carbon neutral by 2050. The group, which includes Schroders and UBS Asset Management, said it would prioritise securing real reductions in emissions, and work with clients over their decarbonisation goals.
They also pledged to set interim targets for assets managed in line with the Paris climate agreement, which aims to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the middle of the century.

France’s data privacy watchdog has handed out its biggest ever fine of 100 million euros ($121 million) to Alphabet’s Google for breaching the country’s rules on online advertising trackers (cookies).
The CNIL said in a statement on Thursday it had also fined U.S. e-commerce giant Amazon 35 million euros for breaching the same rules.
The regulator found the French websites of Google and Amazon didn’t seek the prior consent of visitors before advertising cookies were saved on computers, it said in a statement.

(Reuters) – South Korean police are examining a Tesla Inc electric car after its driver told police it went out of control and crashed into a wall killing a passenger and injuring two other people.
The Model X smashed into the wall and caught fire in the parking lot of a Seoul apartment building late on Wednesday, police said. It took about an hour to put out the fire.