“Investing is a popularity contest, and the most dangerous thing is to buy something at the peak of its popularity. At that point, all favorable facts and opinions are already factored into its price, and no new buyers are left to emerge.” ― Howard Marks

1. Electoral College Confirms Biden Presidency — following several failed attempts by the Trump campaign’s legal team, and 17 Republican attorneys general, to challenge the election results in court, electors from states including Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin confirmed Biden’s win, 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232. Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated President-elect Biden for the first time since the election after the Electoral College confirmed the result.
2. U.S. Begins Vaccine Rollout — the effort to roll out Covid-19 vaccines will be the largest immunization effort in the U.S. since the successful administration of millions of polio vaccine doses in the 1950s. Initial doses of the vaccine are reserved for health care workers and nursing home residents. Pfizer has a deal to provide 100 million doses to the U.S. government and is in talks to provide another 100 million doses—enough to vaccinate about a third of the U.S. population. More Americans could be vaccinated sooner if, as expected, Moderna’s vaccine is approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration later this week. Twenty million doses of that vaccine will be available in the U.S. in December.
3. Apple Is Reportedly Boosting 5G iPhone Production — Nikkei Asia reported that Apple will produce as many as 96 million iPhones in the first half of 2021, up nearly 30% from the same period this year. Over the course of the next year, the company will make 230 million iPhones. One executive at an Apple supplier told Nikkei that demand has been stronger than anticipated for the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, but that demand for the smaller iPhone 12 Mini is a “bit sluggish.” Apple did not comment.
Wall Street currently expects Apple to produce 215 million iPhones in 2021, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said. Ives has the equivalent of a Buy rating on the company and expects “an unprecedented upgrade cycle for Apple with a major holiday season on the horizon over the coming weeks.”
4. Lawmakers Reach Stimulus Deal — after months of deadlock, the House and Senate reached a deal on coronavirus stimulus Sunday evening, capping a weekend of furious negotiations aimed at striking a compromise. The bargain includes $600 direct payments to most Americans, $300 a week in supplemental federal unemployment checks, funding for vaccine distribution and additional small business aid. It also includes $15 billion in funding specifically for airline industry workers wages and a requirement that the industry bring back 30,000 furloughed workers. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that while he supported the approximately $900 billion deal, more aid should be passed next year. “While this short term deal is necessary to meet the urgent and growing needs that so many people are facing immediately going into the winter, this bill is not sufficient.”
5. New Covid-19 Strain in the U.K. Brings Chaos To Europe— the British government that a new strain of Covid-19 that is 70% more infectious is driving up coronavirus cases in the U.K., setting off a chain reaction of new lockdowns and travel bans, a looming logistics crisis, and a slide in stocks. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson canceled plans for an easing of restrictions over Christmas, plunging around 18 million people in southeast England into a new lockdown on Saturday, and causing thousands of people to flee London in the hours before restrictions took effect. The U.K. recorded its highest-ever daily rise in infections with 35,928 new cases reported on Sunday.
More than 20 countries have instituted new bans or restrictions on travel from the U.K. The new mutation of the virus is believed to be linked with cases in Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia.
The closure of France’s border with the U.K. has halted trade between key ports and through the Eurotunnel for 48 hours. British retailers are playing down fears of shortages in the busy run-up to Christmas, when around 10,000 trucks a day typically move between Dover and Calais, but are warning of disruptions if the closure continues.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2020 at 4:13 pm and is filed under Weekly Summary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.