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Pre-market futures following Thursday’s all-time closing highs across all major indexes are moderately mixed at this hour — likely a combination of persistent positivity regarding the Covid-19 vaccines (now plural) with profit-taking, as the coronavirus pandemic hits new all-time highs of its own in the U.S. The Dow looks to open -30 while the Nasdaq is currently +20, with the S&P 500 hovering around break-even.
Moderna (MRNA - Free Report) is now the second pharmaceutical company to have received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), after the Pfizer (PFE - Free Report) -BioNTech (BNTX - Free Report) vaccine got its EUA a week ago. Now the puzzle of figuring out the logistics for vaccine delivery begins — for instance, is Pfizer supplying 50 million immunizations or 25 million in two-doses? there are conflicting reports — and Moderna’s vaccine inclusion provides a real “shot in the arm” in this respect.
So Operation Warp Speed has proven to be a government-provided success to this point, with its distribution of the vaccine the next step in solving the coronavirus challenge in the U.S. Meanwhile, the federal government runs out of money at midnight tonight, without a clear picture of how elected officials on Capitol Hill will resolve this issue — a stop-gap measure that kicks the can for a week or two? a full relief bill agreement? simply allow the deadline to pass and roll the dice on what comes next? Investors will be paying close attention to news coming from Washington DC today.
Also, the Q3 Current Account Deficit fell 10.6% quarter over quarter to -$178.5 billion. This is not as bad as the analyst consensus -$189 billion, but is still within the historic lower realms of U.S. deficits. The all-time low, by the way, was -$218.4 billion — from back in 2006, a couple short years before the financial collapse that led to the Great Recession — and even with massive outlays to fight the pandemic (and more to come, fingers crossed), we’re still a ways from that level. (Until the late-1970s, the U.S. had kept its deficit levels at zero. As of the start of the new millennium, our deficits really fell off the table.)
But the main issue facing the country right now continues to be the coronavirus, which posted a new one-day high in both cases — 241,620 — and fatalities — 3,438 — on Thursday. Since the start of December, the U.S. has lost basically the equivalent of the attacks on 9-11 each day. Only the vaccines appear to have any hope of turning the tide on a nationwide basis.
Each was hand-picked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2020. Each comes from a different sector and has unique qualities and catalysts that could fuel exceptional growth.
Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.
Image: Bigstock
Markets, Covid Deaths at New All-Time Highs
Friday, December 18, 2020
Pre-market futures following Thursday’s all-time closing highs across all major indexes are moderately mixed at this hour — likely a combination of persistent positivity regarding the Covid-19 vaccines (now plural) with profit-taking, as the coronavirus pandemic hits new all-time highs of its own in the U.S. The Dow looks to open -30 while the Nasdaq is currently +20, with the S&P 500 hovering around break-even.
Moderna (MRNA - Free Report) is now the second pharmaceutical company to have received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), after the Pfizer (PFE - Free Report) -BioNTech (BNTX - Free Report) vaccine got its EUA a week ago. Now the puzzle of figuring out the logistics for vaccine delivery begins — for instance, is Pfizer supplying 50 million immunizations or 25 million in two-doses? there are conflicting reports — and Moderna’s vaccine inclusion provides a real “shot in the arm” in this respect.
So Operation Warp Speed has proven to be a government-provided success to this point, with its distribution of the vaccine the next step in solving the coronavirus challenge in the U.S. Meanwhile, the federal government runs out of money at midnight tonight, without a clear picture of how elected officials on Capitol Hill will resolve this issue — a stop-gap measure that kicks the can for a week or two? a full relief bill agreement? simply allow the deadline to pass and roll the dice on what comes next? Investors will be paying close attention to news coming from Washington DC today.
Also, the Q3 Current Account Deficit fell 10.6% quarter over quarter to -$178.5 billion. This is not as bad as the analyst consensus -$189 billion, but is still within the historic lower realms of U.S. deficits. The all-time low, by the way, was -$218.4 billion — from back in 2006, a couple short years before the financial collapse that led to the Great Recession — and even with massive outlays to fight the pandemic (and more to come, fingers crossed), we’re still a ways from that level. (Until the late-1970s, the U.S. had kept its deficit levels at zero. As of the start of the new millennium, our deficits really fell off the table.)
But the main issue facing the country right now continues to be the coronavirus, which posted a new one-day high in both cases — 241,620 — and fatalities — 3,438 — on Thursday. Since the start of December, the U.S. has lost basically the equivalent of the attacks on 9-11 each day. Only the vaccines appear to have any hope of turning the tide on a nationwide basis.
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5 Stocks Set to Double
Each was hand-picked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2020. Each comes from a different sector and has unique qualities and catalysts that could fuel exceptional growth.
Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.
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