“It’s not whether you’re right or wrong, but how much money you make when you’re right and how much you lose when you’re wrong.” — George Soros

1. Biden Signs $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill Into Law — President Biden signed into law a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill to repair the nation’s aging roads and bridges, upgrade the electrical grid and expand access to broadband internet. State transportation agencies will likely see the first infusion of highway funds from the infrastructure package by the beginning of December, said Jeff Davis, senior fellow at the Eno Center for Transportation, a think tank. The infrastructure legislation included a roughly 30% increase in highway formula funding. The measure sets aside $50 billion to bolster infrastructure against climate change and cyberattacks. Another $55 billion will go toward clean drinking water and $65 billion will go toward broadband infrastructure and development. The legislation invests $21 billion in removing pollution from soil and groundwater, job creation in energy communities and a focus on economic and environmental justice. The legislation will include $73 billion to update and expand the power grid.
2. Pfizer Moves to Allow Cheap Versions of Promising Covid Pill — Pfizer Inc. reached a licensing agreement that will allow generic-drug manufacturers to produce inexpensive versions of its Covid-19 pill for 95 low- and middle-income countries, following a similar move by Merck & Co. Pfizer won’t receive royalties from sales in low-income countries, and won’t get royalties from sales to middle-income countries covered by the pact as long as Covid-19 is classified as a public-health emergency, according to the statement.
3. U.S. Buys 10 Million Treatment Courses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 Pill for $5.29 Billion — Pfizer Inc. PFE -0.48% said Thursday it agreed to a $5.29 billion deal with the U.S. to provide enough supplies of its promising Covid-19 pill to treat 10 million people, should health regulators give it the green light. The company’s antiviral drug, Paxlovid, is under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and a decision could come before the end of the year. Under the terms of the deal, the government will pay about $529 for each course of treatment consisting of 30 pills over five days. Twice a day, patients would take two pills of Paxlovid and one pill of another antiviral called ritonavir.
The Paxlovid price is below the approximate $700 per course of treatment the U.S. agreed to pay for molnupiravir, an oral antiviral from Merck MRK -0.38% & Co. and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP that is also under review by the FDA. The U.S. has agreed to purchase 3.1 million courses of molnupiraivir for about $2.2 billion.
4. Covid Boosters Cleared for All Adults as FDA Widens Access — Covid-19 booster shots from Moderna Inc. and the partnership of Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE were cleared by U.S. regulators for all Americans 18 and older, making millions more people eligible for extra protection as concern about a potential winter wave of infections grows. Adults who received their second dose of the drugmakers’ shots at least six months ago are now eligible to receive a third, according to separate statements from the companies and the the U.S. Food and Drug Administration

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: