Stocks looked set for a cautious start to the week as traders monitored developments on progress toward a vaccine. The pound ticked up.

S&P 500 futures opened with little fanfare and Australian shares edged higher in early Monday trading as global equities remain within a whisker of the record high set earlier this month. 

Vaccinations against Covid-19 in the U.S. will 「hopefully」 start in less than three weeks, according to the head of the federal government’s program to accelerate a vaccine. Japan is shut for a holiday and Treasuries won’t trade until the London open.

A disagreement between the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve over the continuation of funding for some of the emergency programs instituted amid the Covid-19 outbreak also weighed on markets last week.

Here's a look at asset classes total returns year to date:

Here's a look at U.S. equity size and style total returns year to date:

Analyst Opinions

Brian Jacobsen, multi-asset strategist at Wells Fargo Asset Management, said on Bloomberg TV

There is a lot of enthusiasm over the vaccine news and rightly so -- as soon as we can get something that is very effective distributed widely, the sooner we can get back to ordinary life. The problem, from our perspective, is we first have to get through winter and this is setting us up for some downside economic surprises.

Weekly market recap

Stock indexes finished the week with a whimper Friday, finishing lower as the market capped a choppy stretch of trade, framed by rising cases of coronavirus and worries above government support to help businesses and workers to end the week. 

The week ahead in focus

Here are the most anticipated earnings releases, IPOs and economic events for the week ahead:

• Earnings season continues to pick up this week. 

  Notable earnings to expect include: $Warner Music Group(WMG.US)$, $Autodesk Inc(ADSK.US)$, $Best Buy Co Inc(BBY.US)$, $Analog Devices Inc(ADI.US)$, $Deere & Co(DE.US)$, $Anaplan Inc(PLAN.US)$.....

• This week we're looking at the Q3 U.S. GDP numbers, U.S. consumer confidence and sentiment, and the upcoming Black Friday shopping holiday. 

• U.S. celebrates the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday.

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