E-minis a touch lower, but only at the.....>

EQUITIES: E-minis a touch lower, but only at the margin, with little in the way

of desire re: holding long risk exposure over the elongated U.S. weekend.

- This lack of desire helped equities tick lower into the Wall St. closing bell,

although the 3 major local indices still finished a touch higher on the day,

boosted by NFPs (some of the details of the release, as well as the weekly

jobless claims data, didn't paint a particularly pretty picture).

- Other potential -ves that became apparent on the day included COVID-19 coming

back to the fore, with a focus on some U.S. hot-spot states & fresh, worrying

commentary from U.S. viral supremo Dr Fauci, in addition to warning shots

towards China from White House economic advisor Kudlow.

- Elsewhere, a Stat News report noted that "a 30K-patient trial of Moderna's

COVID-19 vaccine candidate, exp. to start next week, has been delayed, a

potential hurdle in the company's ambitious effort to deliver key data by

Thanksgiving." The piece cited an investigator, noting "my understanding was

that they wanted to get the 1st vaccines given in July, and they say they're

still committed to do that... they're close to being on target for that."