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It is somewhat remarkable that domestic equity prices surged to a 1.8 percent gain last week. Not even the shocking assault on the U.S. Capitol Building on Wednesday was enough to derail the powerful rally that has been underway since the election in November. Stocks have climbed 17 percent since then, having risen in seven of those ten weeks. Last week’s strength came in the wake of the Senate runoff elections in Georgia, which swung control of the Senate to the Democratic Party in a dramatic upset. While it may not always be necessarily true of individual voters, last week’s gains were clear evidence that the stock market votes with its pocketbook. 

The pace of economic growth in 2021 will largely be determined by the pace of distribution of Covid-19 vaccine. In the U.S., the total number of infections during the pandemic now exceeds 20 million, with 350 thousand deaths. Worldwide those totals are 85 million cases and 1.9 million deaths. Several countries remain in various stages of social restriction amid a resurgence in the virus driven by movement around the holidays.