BlackRock has raised equities to overweight for 2021, based on its view that the restart of the economy will accelerate with the distribution of vaccines. The firm is raising equities from neutral on a tactical basis, meaning over a six-to-12-month basis. From a long-term strategic view, BlackRock remains neutral on stocks, due to valuations and a […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New orders for U.S.-made goods increased more than expected in October and business investment on capital was a bit stronger than initially thought as the manufacturing sector continues its steady recovery from the pandemic. The Commerce Department said on Friday that factory orders rose 1.0% after increasing 1.3% in October. Economists polled […]

Wall Street’s post-election rally and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rise to a new record above 30,000 is a bet that, among other things, a divided government during a Biden administration will be a good for corporations. One of the key “goldilocks” conditions: President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to raise corporate taxes to 28% as part of a […]

The entire U.S. population could be vaccinated against Covid-19 by June, and there could be enough doses to immunize the rest of the nearly 8 billion people in the world by early to mid-2022, the Trump administration’s vaccine chief said Tuesday. “Hopefully by the middle of the year, I hope most Americans will have been immunized, which […]

Shares in Asia-Pacific were higher on Tuesday as investors reacted to the release of a private survey of China’s manufacturing activity. The Caixin/Markit manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index for November came in at 54.9 — its highest reading in a decade. PMI readings above 50 signify expansion, while those below that level represent contraction. On Monday, the […]

New orders for key U.S.-made capital goods increased more than expected in October, but momentum is slowing in line with expectations for slower economic growth in the fourth quarter.

Retailers could end up having a strong finish to 2020, despite all of the challenges that the coronavirus pandemic has dealt the industry, according to a new forecast. The National Retail Federation said Monday it expects holiday sales during November and December to rise between 3.6% and 5.2% year over year, amounting to between $755.3 […]

British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said Monday an interim analysis of clinical trials showed its coronavirus vaccine has an average efficacy of 70% in protecting against the virus. It comes after a string of encouraging vaccine results in recent weeks, following late-stage trial readouts from Pfizer–BioNTech and Moderna. Pfizer and Moderna reported preliminary results showing that their respective Covid vaccines were around […]

Sales of existing homes in October soared well past expectations, rising 4.3% compared with September and 26.6% annually to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 6.85 million units, according to the National Association of Realtors. The NAR’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun, called the annual increase “a spectacular gain.” The annualized sales rate is the highest […]

The nation’s homebuilders have never been this happy. In November, builder confidence in the construction market for single-family homes soared to its third record high in as many months. Overall builder sentiment hit 90 on the monthly National Association of Home Builders’ Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. Anything above 50 is considered positive. Last November, […]