Here are five things you need to know for Monday, December 28:
1. – Stock market futures increase as Trump signs the stimulus bill
Futures rose Monday after President Donald Trump signed a combined $ 2.3 trillion coronavirus aid package and government funding, dropping aid for aid checks in excess of $ 2,000 and avoiding government shutdown.
Dow Jones industrial average contracts gained 178 points, S&P 500 futures increased 26 points and Nasdaq futures increased 89 points.
Trump is late in signing the bill, suggesting he will block it if stimulus controls are not raised to $ 2,000 of the $ 600 Congress approved last week and if spending has not been cut.
But by delaying signing, up to 14 million Americans have lost a week of extended unemployment benefits.
The massive bill includes a $ 900 billion pandemic aid and $ 1.4 trillion in government spending to fund federal agencies by the end of next fiscal year.
The stimulus “could support the market, support the US economy,” Suresh Tantia, a strategist at Credit Suisse, told Bloomberg. “Next year all the basics are there for the markets to continue this rally.”
The S&P 500 rose nearly 15% in 2020. On Thursday, the last trading session before Christmas, the S&P 500 rose 0.36%, the Dow added 0.23%, and the Nasdaq gained 0.26%.
2. – Coronavirus – The latest
The number of confirmed global deaths from Covid-19, a disease caused by coronavirus, has risen to nearly 1.77 million, according to Johns Hopkins University. Confirmed cases of the virus worldwide have risen to 80.83 million.
The death toll in the United States is 333,129, the highest in the world. The number of infected people in the United States was 19,136,158.
According to university data, there have been 226,274 new cases of coronavirus in the United States since Sunday and 1,663 deaths.
Hospitalizations in California rose to a record high after the state added 50,141 cases, one of the highest levels since a record two weeks ago, Bloomberg reported. The total number of deaths in California rose to 24,220.
Covid-19 vaccine produced by AstraZeneca (AZN) – Get the report and Oxford University could be approved by the UK as early as this week, Bloomberg reported, citing someone familiar with the matter.
The approval will come about three weeks after Britain became the first Western country to start immunizing its citizens with a Covid-19 vaccine, the shot made by Pfizer PFE and BioNTech BNTX.
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said on Sunday that researchers believe the British drug maker’s shot will be effective against a new variant of the virus that has rapidly led to rising infection rates in the UK.
3. – China orders Ant Group to review its business
US listed shares of Alibaba (crone) – Get the report fell 1% in premarket trading on Monday after Chinese regulators ordered Ant Group to review lending and other consumer finance operations.
Alibaba has a 33% stake in Ant Group, the world’s largest financial technology company.
The announcement from the People’s Bank of China came just days after regulators began an antitrust investigation into Alibaba, the e-commerce giant. It was also followed by the suspension of the Shanghai Stock Exchange last month of Ant Group’s $ 37 billion pending listing, which would have been the largest initial public offering in the world.
Regulators said in a statement on Sunday that they had ordered the Ant group to formulate a rectification plan and implement a timetable for reviewing its business, including its credit, insurance and wealth management services.
Alibaba’s US storage revenues fell 0.99% in premarket trading to $ 219.81. ADRs fell by more than 13% on Thursday, following the news of the antitrust investigation.
4. – Bitcoin breaks through $ 28,000
Bitcoin rose to a record high of $ 28,000 early Sunday and was propelled higher in recent days as institutional investors and speculators jumped aboard the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin passed $ 25,000 on Friday night, then passed over $ 26,000 and $ 27,000 over the weekend, according to CoinDesk. At the last check, bitcoin traded at $ 26,758.
Bloomberg noted that the oversized returns of bitcoin in October, November and December so far are the longest such stretches since mid-2019.
Bitcoin topped $ 20,000 for the first time on December 16th.
Many experts believe that more gains are coming for bitcoin – some expect to trade over $ 30,000. But if investors and speculators lose faith in digital currency, it can easily sink as it did in February and March and from December 2017 to December 2018.
5. – The economic calendar this week
The US economic calendar in the US is easy, but data on home sales, unemployment claims and trade will be released later in the week.
Very few companies will issue earnings reports this week. Those that will be include SINA (RAIL) – Get the report, Weibo (WB) – Get the report and CSP Inc. (CSPI) – Get the report.