The S&P 500, a broad measure of large publicly-traded US companies, advanced to another all-time high last week as the Democratic Party gained control of the Senate via the run-off elections in Georgia. The Democrats will control both houses of Congress when President-elect Biden is sworn in, which makes the prospect of significant additional fiscal stimulus more likely, both in the form of direct cash payments to Americans as well as infrastructure spending.

US stocks, as measured by the S&P 500 index, declined approximately 1% last week as hospitalizations and deaths in the US from the COVID-19 pandemic reached daily records (Chart 1). Despite these grim milestones, US equities continue to trade near all-time highs as investors anticipate an end to the pandemic in the coming months as vaccines are broadly distributed across the nation and the world.

On Sunday, Congressional leaders in the House and Senate announced that they had finally come to agreement on a long-awaited additional stimulus bill to mitigate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of this writing, some of the final details of the bill remain uncertain, and the official vote is expected to happen on Monday.

US stocks, as measured by the S&P 500 index, declined approximately 1% last week as hospitalizations and deaths in the US from the COVID-19 pandemic reached daily records (Chart 1). Despite these grim milestones, US equities continue to trade near all-time highs as investors anticipate an end to the pandemic in the coming months as vaccines are broadly distributed across the nation and the world.

US stocks marched higher during the shortened Thanksgiving trading week, with the S&P 500 ending at an all-time high and the Dow Jones Industrial Average cresting above 30,000 for the first time ever . This week, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the November employment report.

As we begin a shortened trading week for Thanksgiving, three major pharmaceutical companies have now announced success trials of COVID-19 vaccines. AstraZeneca followed Pfizer and Moderna in bringing forward new tools in the fight against the pandemic.

US stocks continued to move higher last week on the news of positive initial results from Pfizer regarding their COVID-19 vaccine. The S&P 500 index traded up 2% for the week, pushing the year-to-date return to 13% and moving the index to near all-time highs.

After nearly a week of counting votes in swing states, Joe Biden, was declared the winner of the 2020 Presidential Election. Biden gained the victory Saturday morning when a close race in Pennsylvania was called in his favor, pushing his candidacy above the required 270 Electoral College vote threshold.

The US Presidential Election is now just over a week away, and investors have been closely tracking the polls for an indication of what to potentially expect from Washington for the next four years. The charts below highlight that Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, is still significantly favored over Donald Trump, though Trump’s odds have been increasing modestly since late September.

US equity markets, as measured by the S&P 500 index, were flat last week as investors monitored initial third quarter earnings results from companies and tracked the progress toward additional fiscal stimulus from Washington. During the weekend, House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, gave the White House until Tuesday to reach a deal with Democrats, and she has been in active discussions with Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, to work through areas of disagreement.