This week the UK became the first western country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine for the general public. While just about every nation is desperate for a drug to help stem the pandemic, the situation is particularly dire in Britain, where lockdowns have pushed its economy into one of the world’s deepest downturns.
Millennials suffered the biggest financial blow from the Great Recession in 2009, and some have worried this group could be a lost generation when it comes to building household wealth. Although disparities and inequality still persist, there are at least some signs that generation of Americans may have been catching up to Gen X in recent years.
The top question for the global economy is how quickly people will be given an effective vaccine against Covid-19, reducing the need for job- and business-destroying lockdowns. Economists at Goldman Sachs thinks large swaths of the populations in developed countries will be vaccinated by the middle of next year.
Are US companies more valuable than they were before the pandemic ripped a hole in the global economy? Investors are treating American stocks as though they are, but not everyone thinks that’s a good idea.
You win some, and you lose some.
A few months ago, former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein suggested that the stock market didn’t seem worried about a Biden administration, even though the incumbent president’s policies were more “market friendly.” The lifelong Democrat said people may think their stocks will “do better with higher taxes and increased regulation than with nastiness and scorched earth.”
While some of us were compulsively checking for updates on the US election, stock markets rose and fell, people found and lost jobs, and the coronavirus continued spreading. Here’s what else happened this week in the global economy.
Hi [%first_name | Quartz member%],
Companies linked to private prisons plunged in the US stock market yesterday, as the still unfinished election tally signaled a path for Democratic candidate Joe Biden to win the White House.
The votes are still being counted in the US presidential election, but the results already show that some substantial shifts have taken place within the electorate since 2016.
Even before the election is settled, some themes are emerging about what it will mean for the American economy. And on Wall Street, there’s a growing bet that the country will get a smaller stimulus bill than some had hoped for, and that taxes are unlikely to increase.
Traders were in a buoyant mood earlier this week, seemingly positioning for a clear US election outcome and even a strong showing from Democrats that could pave the wave for robust economic stimulus. That’s not what has happened so far.
Ant Group’s blockbuster IPO was poised to be a major milestone for a homegrown champion. But officials in Beijing had other ideas.
As Americans vote in record numbers to choose the next US president, they might be braced for a contested election that drags on for weeks. But professional traders, for the most part, are positioned for a clear outcome.
XTX Markets doesn’t have any human traders. But it does have human venture capitalists.
From Frankfurt to New York, stock markets have had a grizzly week. Their decline reflects growing concern that the nascent economic recovery could stumble.
An uncontained pandemic. A shrinking economy. What could corporate executives possibly be excited about?
David Ellison has been managing investments for three decades, and these days he focuses on financial company stocks. When I spoke with him last week, there was one IPO on his mind: “I’m hoping to buy some of this Ant Financial, if I can,” said Ellison, a portfolio manager at Hennessy Funds in Boston. “It’s the Amazon of financial services.”
Last year, hundreds of thousands of people—from students to retirees—joined immense demonstrations in the UK, calling for the country to cut its carbon emissions to battle the threat of climate change. Their sheer numbers showed a swelling commitment to the cause.
America’s largest banks are steeled for a wave of loan defaults and missed payments that still haven’t arrived. Thanks to an initially immense amount of support from Washington, that pain appears to have been pushed out to next year.
Retirement savers may never have had it more difficult.
Wall Street traders think a contested US presidential election is becoming less likely, as polls suggest Democratic candidate Joe Biden is increasing his lead over president Donald Trump.
Shares of Regeneron are soaring after the US president Donald Trump, who tested positive for Covid-19 last week, touted its drugs on Twitter. He named the biotech company repeatedly in a video post, saying its experimental antibody cocktail “was, like, unbelievable” and that the government aimed to make it available for free to Americans who need it.
China is pouring cash into infrastructure, from green energy projects to electrical grids and airports, in an array of stimulus measures that are rippling through global financial markets. It’s similar to the playbook China used after the last global recession.
