Many Americans will be celebrating Thanksgiving in a new home this year—the pandemic-induced housing boom remains red hot as housing completions climb and mortgage rates sink ever lower. Paying for those homes (among other things) may soon grow more difficult for many though, as heavily utilized pandemic unemployment assistance programs are set to expire on December 26th and Congress remains stalled on the next round of stimulus. Meanwhile, it’s been a strong couple of weeks for equities following a slew of good news on vaccine progress: global equities saw their largest 2-week cash inflow on record and the Dow, the S&P 500® Index, and many emerging market indices have recently clinched new record highs. Will AstraZeneca’s announcement of yet another promising vaccine contender add fuel to the fire heading into the holiday season?
Fireside Charts will be taking some time off for Thanksgiving and will not be published on Friday this week. Have a happy and healthy holiday and we’ll see you back on Monday 11/30!
1. The “flight to the ‘burbs” has finally lifted the housing market into higher territory than the lows of the previous four housing recessions (pre-Great Recession)…
Source: The Chart Store, from 11/23/20
2. Just in case you missed the refinancing opportunity before…
Source: The Daily Shot, from 11/23/20
3. When this aid ends, how many more rent and mortgage delinquencies will be created? Homelessness will not help the pandemic….
Source: Statista, from 11/23/20
4. Much of the dry powder (cash) is now back in the markets…
Source: The Daily Shot, from 11/23/20
5. Post-election expansion of market breadth saw the Dow, The Dow transports, the S&P mid-cap and S&P 500 equal weight indices all reach new highs last week.
Source: The Chart Store, from 11/23/20
6. Small Caps have closed almost half the performance gap with large caps and finally are near breakeven for the year…
Source: The Chart Store, from 11/23/20
7. The long end of the curve saw rates decline a bit… is the Fed and their QE back in action?
Source: The Chart Store, from 11/23/20
8. The Fed’s recent QE bond purchases set an all-time high for their balance sheet…
Source: The Chart Store, from 11/23/20
9. This is stunning and eventually may cause inflation… but for now, while the Fed can print more at will and expand QE, rates should stay low…
Source: The Daily Shot, from 11/23/20
10. Many EM markets, especially in Asia, have also reached new highs…
Source: The Daily Shot, from 11/23/20