December 3 Weekly Market Update

The U.K. gave emergency authorization to Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine this week, becoming the first western nation to approve a vaccine for use. Additionally, in the U.S., Moderna requested emergency use authorization of its vaccine from the Food and Drug Administration on Monday. These positive developments follow wave after wave of good vaccine news throughout November – news that led the Dow Jones Industrial Average to post its best monthly showing since 1987 and the S&P 500 to experience its best November ever.

Optimism regarding a fiscal stimulus package was renewed this week. On Tuesday, in an effort to break the long-running stalemate, a bipartisan group of legislators from the House of Representatives and Senate proposed a $908 billion stimulus package. The proposed package includes support for small businesses, an extension of unemployment benefits, aid for airline and transit companies, funding for state and local governments, and monies for COVID-19 testing and vaccinations. A stimulus package may be much needed in the near future as new lockdown policies are already starting to moderate the recent economic recovery.

This past week also saw the start of the holiday shopping season. On Black Friday, in-store sales were relatively low – as was expected due the pandemic – and online sales were not as strong as many had hoped. (Weaker online sales may have been due to retailers initiating early sales in October thereby pulling retail revenues forward.) However, Americans spent over $10 billion on Cyber Monday, making it the biggest individual online shopping day in American history.

While vaccine-related news continues to be exciting, actual implementation may still take some time as the infrastructure needed to deploy and administer vaccines will be unprecedented in many ways. Meanwhile, due to Thanksgiving-related travel, it is sadly likely that there will soon be another spike in new COVID-19 cases, and, perhaps, a related spike in near-term market volatility. However, I am hopeful many of the policies being implemented in states and localities across the country will lessen the number of cases going forward and ease our path out of the pandemic.

Stay safe and be well.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 are unmanaged indexes that cannot be directly invested into. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investing involves risk and the potential to lose principal.

The information provided, including references to individual companies are for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a recommendation of any kind or investment advice.

Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, risks, and uncertainties, which change over time and cannot be guaranteed.