Here are the top news, trends, and analysis investors need to get their trading day started:
1. McConnell blocks $ 2,000 stimulus checks
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks with fellow Senate Republicans at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on December 15, 2020.
Tom Brenner-Pool / Getty Images
Majority leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday blocked efforts by minority leader Chuck Schumer to unanimously approve a parliament-passed bill to increase direct payments in the coronavirus aid package from $ 600 to $ 2,000.
The Kentucky Republican then introduced a new bill linking the increase with the repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The law would meet all of President Donald Trump’s recent demands that have nothing to do with one another but that would not receive democratic support and would become law.
2. The US confirms the first case of the new strain of Covid discovered in the UK
An ambulance crew waits with a patient outside the Coast Plaza Hospital emergency room during a surge in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in Los Angeles, California on December 26, 2020.
David Swanson | Reuters
The first case of a new Covid-19 strain has been confirmed in the United States, Colorado health officials said Tuesday.
The infected person, a man in his twenties, has no travel history and is in isolation in Elbert County, about an hour and a half south of Denver. Preliminary analysis of the mutant strain, first identified in the UK, suggests it could be up to 70% more transmissible.
3. Bitcoin rises above $ 28,000 for the first time
studioEAST | Getty Images
4. Stock futures rise as Wall Street tries to build on its strong 2020 earnings
Traders work on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
NYSE
US stock futures rose Wednesday morning as the market tried to recover from a slight decline in the previous session and added to its already strong 2020 performance. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 73 points, or 0.2%. The futures on S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 gained 0.4% each.
At the start of the session, the Dow and S&P 500 were up 6.3% and 15.4%, respectively, over the year. The Nasdaq Composite is up more than 40% since the beginning of the year.
5. Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, approved in the UK for emergency use
CSL staff will be working in the laboratory in Melbourne, Australia on November 8th. CSL will start manufacturing the AstraZeneca-Oxford University’s Covid-19 vaccine from Monday.
Darrian Traynor | Getty Images News | Getty Images
A coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca was approved for emergency use in the UK on Wednesday. The vaccine is expected to be launched next week. Unlike vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna, it does not need to be stored at extremely low temperatures.
AstraZeneca said in a statement that it “plans to ship millions of cans in the first quarter” as part of its agreement with the UK government to provide up to 100 million cans in total.
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