Morning Report 8 Dec 21: US and European stocks gain setting the stage for ASX gains

US sharemarkets advanced on Tuesday on optimism that the Omicron virus variant wont derail global growth. Investors piled into technology shares with chip giant Intel up 3.1% on plans to take its self-driving car unit Mobileye public. Shares of Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon were all up over 2.5%. American Express (+3.9%) was a strong performer as holiday spending soared. But Merck shares slipped 1.6% after the drugmaker paused enrolment in its HIV-1 clinical trials. The Dow Jones index closed up by 492 points or 1.4% after being up 592 points at session highs. The S&P 500 index lifted by 2.1% and the Nasdaq index added 462 points or 3%, posting its best day since March.

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