The Ibex, calm and pending of the United States, the vaccine and the mergers

The European indices are trading flat and calm this Wednesday (Ibex: + 0.18%. 8,188 points). In the Spanish market, investors are watching Unicaja and Liberbank (the first rises 4% and the second falls 3%), which in the last session confirmed their merger and are offering more details about it today. They foresee annual cost savings of 192 million euros for the resulting entity and an increase in earnings per share of approximately 50% compared to market estimates for 2023. The exchange ratio has been set at one Unicaja share for each 27,705 Liberbank shares, which will lead to the former taking 59.5% of the capital and the latter 40.5%.

Beyond this important corporate operation in the last 'minutes' of 2020 (on which they will give more details today starting at 11:30 am), investors are awaiting the signing by the United Kingdom and the EU of the agreement agreed last week. In addition, on the other side of the Atlantic, the stimulus plan to combat the pandemic continues to be the most relevant. The Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, has blocked the increase in direct aid to the 2,000 dollars requested by Donald Trump, which is a new bump in the road.

The UK has just approved the Oxford and AstraZeneca vaccine. AstraZeneca rose sharply on the stock market last day in anticipation that this approval would take place imminently. The CEO of the pharmaceutical company said this week that its vaccine will be 95% effective, in line with Pfizer's. "We believe that we have discovered the winning formula and how to achieve an efficacy that, after two doses, is on par with all the others," said Pascal Soriot.

However, the Ibex, which rose moderately in the last session, continues with that brake at 8,200 points. The experts of Bolsamanía recall that it is necessary first to overcome this level to attack the truly important one, the resistance of 8,322 points, the maximums drawn at the beginning of this month.

As for other aspects contained in the agenda for this Wednesday, in Spain the preliminary CPI for December has been published. Remember that tomorrow, Thursday, December 31, some exchanges will close, like the German one, while others will open only until mid-session, like the Spanish one. Wall Street will operate normally. On Friday all world indices close for the New Year.