Dow jumped 399 (near session highs), advancers over decliners 5-1 & NAZ climbed 119. The MLP index gained 2+ to the 124s & the REIT index shot up 9+ to the 373s (a high since mid Mar). Junk bond funds were little changed & Treasuries slid back a little in price. Oil dropped almost 1 to 40 & gold went up 11 to 1884 (more on both below).
AMJ (Alerian MLP Index tracking fund)
![Live 24 hours gold chart [Kitco Inc.]](https://www.kitco.com/images/live/gold.gif?0.2180338269244485)
The US reported another record one-day spike in Covid-19 cases as the outbreak grows more severe & overwhelms some hospitals. The country reported more than 153K new cases yesterday, according to Johns Hopkins University. That's the 3rd-straight record one-day spike & has pushed the 6-day average of new US infections to over 131K, up more than 32% compared with a week ago. Also, more than 67K people are hospitalized with Covid-19 across the country, more than at any other point during the pandemic. The number of people dying every day from the disease is climbing, too. Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases, said that “a number of factors” is driving the outbreak, including people growing tired of following public health measures. He said that's a particular issue as the country approaches Thanksgiving in about 2 weeks, when many Americans are expected to travel to see family & friends, potentially bringing the virus with them. Fauci urged Americans to wear a mask, practice social distancing, wash hands frequently & to follow other public health measures.
U.S. reports record 153,400 new Covid cases, Fauci urges caution
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Friday the Trump administration is "tackling Chinese companies that mean to do America harm" with the latest exec order. Pres Trump just signed an order that prevents Americans from investing in certain Chinese companies that help the country's military operations. "American capital should not be used to finance Chinese militarization, particularly weapons that are going to be used to kill Americans," Navarro said. The White House has identified 31 Chinese companies & more than 100 subsidiaries traded on US & Chinese exchanges as part of the order, Navarro said, naming the Aviation Industry Corp of China as an example. "What the president has done, which has been in the tradition of his presidency, is crack down hard on China. In this case, what we're tackling [are] Chinese companies that mean to do America harm," Navarro added. Navarro also identified Hikivision & Huawei as examples of surveillance companies that have been accused of providing tools to China so the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can keep tabs on the country's Muslim minority populations in Xinjiang, some of whom have been forced into "reeducation," or detention, camps. "These are bad, bad, bad, bad companies doing bad, bad things with the goal of driving the U.S. Navy out of the Pacific," Navarro said. A 2017 Chinese national intelligence law says all Chinese companies must comply with requests from the CCP for information. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that the exec order "will not only seriously damage the political interests of Chinese companies but will also damage the interests of investors in various countries, including the United States." "The U.S. government maliciously slandered China’s military-civilian integration development policy out of political motives and abused national power to unreasonably suppress Chinese companies," he added.
Navarro: Trump admin 'tackling Chinese companies that mean to do America harm'
Gold futures ended higher,
but saw a loss of more than 3% for the week. Prices had suffered their
largest one-day percentage decline in 7 years on Mon following
news of a potential COVID-19 vaccine. Dec gold rose $12 (0.7%) to settle at $1886 an ounce.
Gold futures end higher for the session, down for the week
Oil futures declined,
but US prices tallied a weekly gain of more than 8% on the back of
expectations for lower energy demand & a climb in weekly US crude
supplies. Prices had climbed sharply early on in the week on news of a
potential COVID-19 vaccine, but gave up some of their gains yesterday & today after US gov data showed an unexpected weekly climb
in domestic crude inventories. Dec West Texas Intermediate crude fell 99¢ (2.4%) to settle at $40.13 a barrel. Prices rose 8.1% for the week.
U.S. oil futures post a weekly gain of more than 8%
2 of Pres-elect Joe Biden's coronavirus advisors pushed back today on the idea of a national lockdown to suppress the coronavirus pandemic. “As a group, really the consensus is that we need a more nuanced approach,” Dr Celine Gounder, who sits on the panel & is an infectious disease specialist at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said, adding that it was “not the opinion” of the group to institute such widespread restrictions across the US. “We can be much more targeted geographically. We can also be more targeted in terms of what we close.” Dr Vivek Murthy, a former US surgeon general tapped to help lead the group, said national lockdowns were recommended in the spring when scientists didn't know as much about how the disease spreads & people were less fatigued from the pandemic. “We’re not in a place where we’re saying, ‘Shut the whole country down,”’ Murthy said & is advocating for a more targeted approach. “If we don’t do that, what you’re going to find is that people will become even more fatigued, schools won’t be open to children and the economy will be hit harder.”
President-elect Biden’s Covid advisors nix idea of U.S. lockdown to curb spread
Mon was an unusually wild day in the stock market when stocks skyrocketed, sending the Dow to an intraday record high just under 30K. The rest of the week, the Dow traded sideways, although very choppy, not far below the record close on Feb 12 at 29,551. Post election tumult is getting settled while the virus shows no sign of going away. Investors are optimistic about the economy even with all the unknowns going forward. Next week will be a big test for the bulls to see if they can take the Dow to new heights. Gold shot up over 2K in early Aug & since then has traded pretty much sideways around 1900 while the Dow has risen around 3K to.roughly a new record.
Dow Jones Industrials
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