US stocks finished 2020 with a gain of more than 16 per cent — well above the historical average — after a technology sector-led rally pulled Wall Street back from a brief bear market to set a record high in defiance of pandemic, recession and political upheaval. The Nasdaq Composite, dominated by tech giants such as Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon, gained more than 44 per cent this year to record its best performance since 2009, as work and consumer spending moved online. The S&P 500’s 16.3 per cent annual gain compared with an average 11.8 per cent over the previous decade. It has now recorded a positive year in 14 out of the first 21 years of the century. EU ambassadors in Brussels on Monday gave the green light for the trade agreement to come into provisional force from January 1 in a move designed to prevent border disruption as the Brexit transition period ends. The deal is due to be voted on and ratified in full by the European Parliament in early 2021 and is expected to be approved in Britain’s House of Commons on Wednesday, although MPs will have only five hours to debate the bill. Although some senior Eurosceptics have called for more time to scrutinise the legislation, the ERG is expected to give its formal approval on Tuesday, subject to a final meeting. The US Senate voted late on Monday to approve a stimulus package worth nearly $900bn, paving the way for the second-largest economic relief bill in American history. The Republican-controlled Senate voted 92-6 in favour of the economic relief package, which was tied to a wider appropriations bill to fund the federal government. The House, which is controlled by Democrats, voted 359-53 to approve the measure earlier in the evening. The omnibus bill, spanning nearly 5,600 pages, was first published on Monday afternoon, after congressional leaders from both parties struck a last-minute deal late on Sunday following several days of tense negotiations. The highly infectious variant of coronavirus that has emerged in south-east England is spreading rapidly to the rest of the UK and is already present elsewhere in the world, scientists warned on Sunday. The World Health Organisation said its Evolution Working Group is working closely with the UK medical authorities to understand how the variant, now called B.1.1.7, is likely to affect the course of the pandemic. It has been detected in the Netherlands, Denmark and Australia. Scientists say two aspects of B.1.1.7 give cause for concern. One is the unprecedented number of mutations it carries. The other is the speed with which it is supplanting other strains of the Sars-Cov-2 virus in south-east England.it. Several senior Republicans acknowledged Joe Biden would be the next US president in a decisive break with Donald Trump after the Democrat secured the majority of Electoral College votes required to win the White House. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John Cornyn of Texas and Chuck Grassley of Iowa were among senators telling reporters on Monday it was time to accept Mr Biden would be sworn in as the 46th US president on January 20. For weeks, most Republican lawmakers declined to contradict Mr Trump’s false allegations that he would have won the November 3 election were it not for widespread voter fraud. Mr Cornyn said Mr Biden was the “president-elect subject to whatever additional litigation is ongoing”, adding “we’ll see the page turned . . . we’ll have a peaceful transition”. Rob Portman, the Republican senator from Ohio, said: “I think we need to respect this process the founding fathers established, and we must respect the will of the voters.” When asked whether Mr Biden was president-elect, Mr Graham, one of Mr Trump’s most loyal supporters, responded “yeah”, adding: “It’s a very, very narrow path for the president. I don’t see how it gets there from here.” Britain’s trade talks with the EU were on “a knife-edge” on Sunday as negotiators began a last effort to overcome deep divisions over the rules that will govern post-Brexit relations. Micheál Martin, Irish prime minister, said: “My gut instinct is that it’s 50-50 right now and I don’t think one can be overly optimistic about a resolution emerging.” Mr Martin told Irish broadcaster RTE he had spoken to key players involved in the talks, which resumed in Brussels on Sunday, and confirmed that the sides remained deadlocked on how to maintain a “level playing field” for competition after the UK leaves the EU single market on December 31. The EU budget commissioner has warned Poland and Hungary that Brussels is ready to cut them out of the recovery fund and proceed with the project without them if they continue to block Europe’s upcoming budget. Johannes Hahn said Warsaw and Budapest “cannot stop us from helping our citizens” as he confirmed that the commission’s lawyers had identified possible ways of circumventing the two capitals’ objections to the EU’s spending plans. His intervention, in a Financial Times interview, steps up the pressure on the two countries as they block the planned €750bn pandemic recovery fund as well as the EU’s seven-year budget. Both countries object to a new rule of law mechanism that they claim unfairly targets their nations, a stand that has thrown the EU’s July spending deal into jeopardy. Tesla will enter the S&P 500 next month in one swoop, reflecting confidence that Wall Street traders will be able to handle a record arrival to the index followed by trillions of dollars of passive investment funds. S&P Dow Jones Indices announced the decision late on Monday, after previously considering staggering the electric carmaker’s introduction to America’s blue-chip stock index. The inclusion of Tesla ranks as the biggest on record and will give the company one of the largest weightings in the S&P 500, prompting the index provider to ask market participants this month whether the addition should occur in two stages. Joe Biden, the US president-elect, on Monday announced an economic team that sought to balance experienced Democratic policymakers who will be well-received by markets and business with more progressive economists. The nominees included Janet Yellen, the former Fed chair, as Treasury secretary, and Neera Tanden, a former senior aide to Hillary Clinton and president of the Center for American Progress think-tank, as budget director. Wally Adeyemo, the president of the Obama Foundation and a former international economic official, was tapped to be deputy Treasury secretary. Combined with the expected selection of Brian Deese, a BlackRock executive, to be director of the National Economic Council, the picks signalled Mr Biden’s preference for pragmatic centre-left policymakers in his effort to spur the US recovery amid the pandemic shock, at a time when his ambitions will be limited by a closely divided Congress. |
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March 2021
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