At the end of last week, stocks experienced a massive sell-off that led the major US indices to close down led by utility, industrial, and financial companies. But that’s not all, investor optimism was shattered when Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin said that several emergency loan programs created to ease the pandemic crisis will end in December 😲😖, a decision that Charles Evans, Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President, called “disappointing,” according to Investing.com.

But vacations are around the corner, and the bulls know it. Thanksgiving has arrived 🥳 and this week there will only be three full days of trading, but this does not mean that there will not be important moves as Best Buy, Deere, Dollar Tree, Gap, and Dell will report earnings and the FOMC minutes will also be published. In addition, this Friday is Black Friday, the event that opens the Christmas shopping season, one of the most hopeful seasons for investors and companies around the world. This time will not be as usual, of course, but online sales are expected to climb and some of the biggest retailers will find relief after the crisis. Consumer confidence data will also be reported tomorrow, and personal spending and GDP figures for the third quarter will be reported the day after tomorrow. This, along with unemployment claims, trade balance data, and new home sales, will be key news in letting us know how the economy is doing, whether the recovery is on track or whether the burden of increased COVID-19 infections is starting to be felt.

Important news will also come from the European continent, now that Brexit has returned to public discussion with a Great Britain that hopes to reach an agreement with the European Union before the end of the transition period on January 1 next year. Furthermore, the United Kingdom has just sealed an agreement with Canada to renew its trade alliance by strengthening digital trade, women’s empowerment, and environmental protection, among other issues. The outlook promises to be good, and the pound knows it, as it grew by 0.8% last week, of which 0.2% was just on Friday. Other must-knows

• On Saturday Regeneron was granted emergency approval by the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration). On Friday the drugmaker closed with an increase of 0.78%. We will see if Pfizer gets this approval for their vaccine soon - and watch out as this could mean that within 24 hours of approval, Americans could start receiving the vaccine 🤩.
• Hershey Co., the US chocolate maker, bought close to 30,000 tons of cheap cocoa from the ICE futures exchange, turning down purchases from Ghana and Ivory Coast, the world’s leading cocoa producers. This makes things a little more difficult for these producers as they are selling their first crop under a premium known as LID, a premium created to help relieve farmers’ poverty.
• BioNTech rallied almost 10% on Friday, piling on a 15% increase during the week. News of a possible vaccine has it through the roof.