It has been an Asia-Pac session of two.......>

STOCKS: It has been an Asia-Pac session of two narratives for the major equity

markets.

- U.S. equity index futures started the session on the front foot, with a

recirculation of a story noting that Moderna has shipped the first batch of its

coronavirus vaccine to U.S. government researchers. The bid has slowly waned but

the contracts are still comfortably higher on the day.

- The Nikkei 225 played catch up to the broader sell off seen Monday after the

elongated Japanese weekend, although the index has recovered from early lows.

- Chinese equity indices also struggled, with some thoughts behind that matter

outlined in an earlier bullet.

- Consumer discretionary and energy names generally struggled, with fairly

obvious reasoning behind those moves. Elsewhere, Australia's heavyweight

materials sector was also under pressure on demand side matters.

- Nikkei 225 -3.3%, Hang Seng -0.1%, CSI 300 -1.6%, ASX 200 -1.6%.

- S&P 500 futures +26, DJIA futures +192, NASDAQ 100 futures +100.