Wednesday, December 30, 2020
Markets are in the green moderately ahead of today’s opening bell, looking for another opportunity to set new record highs on the major indexes. This is nice to see after some steam was lost in the bullish trading engine Tuesday; there is nothing systemic investors are particularly worried about at this stage.
The passing of a new relief package — at long last — will bring assistance of all sorts to the hurting economy as the Covid pandemic rages on. Most famously, this will consist of $600 checks to be mailed out to the American citizenry this week, but there is rent default forgiveness, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and a host of other things in the $900 billion bill. Live venue aid, a provision added later with help of the movement Save Our Stages, with provide $15 billion in relief to live music venues, which have obviously been very hard hit by the pandemic. All of this can only be seen as a positive for the economy going forward.
Advance Trade in Goods for November hit a record low this morning to -$84.8 billion, and the largest trade gap since this metric started tracking in 1955. Not until the 1980s did the U.S. ever carry a sustainable trade deficit, and this really accelerated in the late ’90s and after the turn of the Millennium. After a strong burst of building back this deficit following the Great Recession of the late ’00s, but has since fallen off the table. In just one month, from October to November, our trade deficit dropped more than $4 billion.
Plenty of economic engines will require major recalibrations as we march forward in a post-pandemic era, but the trade deficit and the U.S. debt total — also at a record high currently — are to be ignored at our peril. Though we do see real strength in the next 12 months from myriad economic structures, these underpinnings of the economy will need to be addressed sooner or later. As for now, we’ll keep our eye on them.
Two more full trading days for 2020 mean we could push our overall market levels higher, as we price in the post-pandemic era. Analysts noted yesterday that Covid vaccinations are advancing at a much slower pace than expected, and through that prism the markets may be getting ahead of themselves a bit. But for now, the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq are set for their second-straight full month of gains, with the small-cap Russell 2000 on pace for its biggest-gaining quarter ever.
Questions or comments about this article and/or its author? Click here>>
The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All
Last year, it generated $24 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it's predicted to blast through the roof to $77.6 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce "the world's first trillionaires," but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early.
See Zacks' 3 Best Stocks to Play This Trend >>
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Markets Pricing-In Post-Pandemic Era
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
Markets are in the green moderately ahead of today’s opening bell, looking for another opportunity to set new record highs on the major indexes. This is nice to see after some steam was lost in the bullish trading engine Tuesday; there is nothing systemic investors are particularly worried about at this stage.
The passing of a new relief package — at long last — will bring assistance of all sorts to the hurting economy as the Covid pandemic rages on. Most famously, this will consist of $600 checks to be mailed out to the American citizenry this week, but there is rent default forgiveness, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and a host of other things in the $900 billion bill. Live venue aid, a provision added later with help of the movement Save Our Stages, with provide $15 billion in relief to live music venues, which have obviously been very hard hit by the pandemic. All of this can only be seen as a positive for the economy going forward.
Advance Trade in Goods for November hit a record low this morning to -$84.8 billion, and the largest trade gap since this metric started tracking in 1955. Not until the 1980s did the U.S. ever carry a sustainable trade deficit, and this really accelerated in the late ’90s and after the turn of the Millennium. After a strong burst of building back this deficit following the Great Recession of the late ’00s, but has since fallen off the table. In just one month, from October to November, our trade deficit dropped more than $4 billion.
Plenty of economic engines will require major recalibrations as we march forward in a post-pandemic era, but the trade deficit and the U.S. debt total — also at a record high currently — are to be ignored at our peril. Though we do see real strength in the next 12 months from myriad economic structures, these underpinnings of the economy will need to be addressed sooner or later. As for now, we’ll keep our eye on them.
Two more full trading days for 2020 mean we could push our overall market levels higher, as we price in the post-pandemic era. Analysts noted yesterday that Covid vaccinations are advancing at a much slower pace than expected, and through that prism the markets may be getting ahead of themselves a bit. But for now, the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq are set for their second-straight full month of gains, with the small-cap Russell 2000 on pace for its biggest-gaining quarter ever.
Questions or comments about this article and/or its author? Click here>>
The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All
Last year, it generated $24 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it's predicted to blast through the roof to $77.6 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce "the world's first trillionaires," but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early.
See Zacks' 3 Best Stocks to Play This Trend >>