Bitcoin has had an increase of almost 64% since the beginning of October, a surge that brought it very close to its 3-year high, which for some means that, for the first time, it could reach $20,000. On the other hand, the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 reached historic highs at market close on Monday, and yesterday slipped 0.56% and 0.48% respectively, but are still above February’s highs. And the Nasdaq 100 was down 0.3% due, in part, to the fact that the FAANG dropped between 0.6% and 1.4%, but also because Tesla announced that it would join the S&P 500 (and its shares rose 8.2% on the news).

But not all of this was good news for the economic recovery. Retail sales reported a 0.3 percent decline in October, the lowest report since May; in addition, they are expected to shrink further if there is no stimulus to offset the negative economic effects of the pandemic. It is important to note then that consumers bought far fewer vehicles, sporting goods, clothing, furniture, and other items, and electronics and construction products were among the top sellers. In the same way, consumer confidence has slumped so far in November, and although manufacturing production has accelerated over the past month, it has remained well below what it was prior to the outbreak of COVID-19. Now hope is that the Christmas season will over-stimulate all these indicators.

Recovery is again facing major hurdles. In fact, Fed chair Jerome Powell continued to insist that a stimulus is urgently needed to fight the economic consequences brought on by the virus, which now has increasing numbers of infections. In this regard, Powell insists that as long as cases are on the rise and the pandemic is not tackled, fiscal support needs to be boosted until a vaccine is widely implemented. Other must-knows:

• J&J hopes to apply for approval of its vaccine at the FDA in February 2021, as it estimates that by the end of the year it will have 60,000 people vaccinated through the clinical trial it is developing. Moderna, on the other hand, reported an effectiveness rate of 94.5% for its COVID-19 vaccine - very close to the one reported by Pfizer - so the race is getting closer and closer.
• Some retail pharmacies plunged nearly 9% after Amazon.com Inc. launched into the drug industry. The company climbed 0.15% yesterday.
• The demand for new construction represented in October’s housing and building permit indicators will be reported this morning so this will be very important data for the real estate sector - keep an eye on these investments.
• Oil inventories increased to 4.2 million last week, according to the American Petroleum Institute, with WTI falling 0.25% to $41.36 per barrel and Brent dropping 0.07% to $43.55.