Initial jobless claims are expected to show a small improvement from last week's 751,000 total when the data is released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Policymakers are becoming increasingly concerned that the resurgence of the pandemic in the U.S. is putting the recovery in jeopardy. Later today Fed Chair Jerome Powell speaks at the European Central Bank's annual forum, which investors will monitor closely for any hints of a change in his assessment of risks.  

Shares of Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) are 5% higher in premarket trade after accumulating enough cases of COVID-19 in its vaccine trial to analyze the shot's effectiveness. Preliminary results could be released soon, with the biotech firm saying it could hand the data over to an independent monitoring committee within days. The vaccine, which uses a similar mRNA technology to Pfizer's, is peceived to be highly effective

A day after OPEC cut its global oil demand forecasts, the IEA is jumping on the train, as the "task of re-balancing the market will make slow progress unless the fundamentals change." "With a COVID-19 vaccine unlikely to ride to the rescue of the global oil market for some time, the combination of weaker demand and rising oil supply provides a difficult backdrop to the meeting of OPEC+ countries," according to the agency. The IEA now expects world oil demand to contract by 8.8M barrels per day this year.

With Northwest Quadrant Wealth Management a Registered Investment Advisor I am Josh Fenili.