Business
The Major Markets skyrocketed last week. In fact, pretty much every major equity index climbed higher. The greatest gains were in the NADSAQ as the tech index added nine percentage points. This was even more apparent at the sector level as the S&P 500 Information Technology sector posted an even larger gain with a return of 9.70%. The only sector that ended under a single percentage point higher was energy as the sector was pulled down do to weakness in Natural Gas. Last week opened higher and climber with each subsequent day before pausing Friday as the S&P 500 ended virtually flat on the day. The weekly gain in the S&P 500 marked the largest gain since April and the third largest weekly gain for the year. While some may have attributed the gains to results of last week’s election, half the gains were made before the polls closed Tuesday night. On that note, the results of the 2020 election will likely continue to make headlines for the rest of the year. No-doubt you are already aware that as of election night, no clear winner of the presidential election had been declared . Both candidates declared themselves as the eventual winner Wednesday . And as the week wore on, Former Vice President Joe Biden appeared to narrow the gap to the required 270 electoral votes needed to be declared president. Over the weekend, various news agencies declared him the winner and the President Elect of the United States. In a normal year, this would be the end of it. But this is 2020… President Trump promptly declared that lawsuits would be filed in various states as allegations of inaccuracies and shenanigans began to swirl . This was compounded by the unusually large use of mail in votes and a court case that allowed votes to be received through Friday in Pennsylvania. The intent of all this context is not to speak to the validity or the merit of the current claims of either candidate, but to highlight the political situation that may impact the markets between now and when the president will be sworn in in January. Additionally, the races in the House and the Senate ended mixed. Democrats look likely to pick up one seat in the Senate with a run-off election in Georgia likely to take place January 5th which should resolve which party has the majority. Meanwhile, the Democrats look likely to lose 4 seats in the House with the Republicans likely to pick up 5 seats, narrowing the Democrat majority in the House. This new political environment is likely to make the prospect of a massive stimulus bill, significant changes to tax rates, and modification to existing health-care laws a non-starter in Washington for the immediate future. In economic news, the October BLS nonfarm payroll report came out showing 638,000 new jobs. Furthermore, the unemployment rate fell to 6.9%. This, along with the FOMC Press Conference Thursday was overshadowed by the election and overall political news that will likely continue to dominate news for the weeks to come.