Wake Up Wall Street (SPY) (QQQ): More records as omicron watched closely

Ivan Brian FXStreet

Here is what you need to know on Monday, December 13:

The omicron variant is now rampant in the UK and doubling every 3 to 4 days. So far hospital admission in South Africa had not been as bad as delta and deaths have been over 20 times lower. More time is needed as the impact may be skewed by younger people catching it rather than the elderly. All this positive news did spur equities to more gains and records on Friday. This week however brings a full suite of central bank announcements with the Fed, Bank of England, and ECB all lining up to do their thing. Fed to taper more than expected will be the main concern for US equity investors.

The dollar is higher at 1.1280 versus euro, bitcoin is 48,500, gold is $1873 and oil is lower at $71.50.

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European markets are higher: Eurostoxx +0.2%, FTSE flat and Dax +0.4%.

US futures are higher: S&P +0.2%, Dow flat and Nasdaq +0.4%.

Wall Street (SPY) (QQQ) stocks news

Rivian (RIVN) R1T names motor Trend truck of the year.

Apple (AAPL) above $180 in the premarket.

Tesla (TSLA) Elon Musk is Time's Man of the year.

Peloton (PTON) releases add featuring Mr. Big back from the dead.

Pfizer (PFE) and BNTX, Israeli study shows booster shots offer good protection against omicron.

Harley Davidson (HOG) merging Livewire electric bike unit with a SPAC.

Lucid (LCID) up 5% premarket, added to Nasdaq 100 effective December 20.

Upgrades and downgrades

Source: Benzinga Pro

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Author

Ivan Brian

FXStreet

Ivan Brian started his career with AIB Bank in corporate finance and then worked for seven years at Baxter. He started as a macro analyst before becoming Head of Research and then CFO.

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