Administrators in the United States still appear quite divided over a new stimulus package. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is advocating for the Democrats’ bill that ensures ample funding for local governments and public institutions plus unemployment benefits, now formally gave the White House a deadline by Tuesday to see whether the President will agree to the proposal or not.
Meanwhile, Republicans, who have a majority in the Senate, are trying to propose smaller stimulus packages to target specific areas and avoid some of the ground covered in the Democrats’ bill. In general, Republicans have refused Pelosi’s proposal because they want to spend a smaller amount of money on stimulus.
On the contrary, President Trump appears to want even more money spent on fighting the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic than even Democrats have dared to propose. In this, the President appears at odds with his own party, contributing to the overall confusion over upcoming stimulus.
The hopes for stimulus are meager but enough to give the US stock markets a boost, with an increase registered among all the main indices today.
The markets have also reacted positively to the latest economic data from China, where it became known that the GDP grew by 2.7% in Q3 of 2020. China will likely be the only country not affected by the coronavirus in terms of growth. Recall that despite the Covid-19 pandemic beginning in China, the country has managed to contain any further outbreaks and has not seen a large-scale second wave yet.
Carrying over from last week, Brexit remains an issue investors are following closely. The UK appears to have agreed to continue negotiations with the EU in search of a trade agreement, despite earlier promises by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to walk away from the talks. At last week’s European Council meeting the EU confirmed its hard stance against the Internal Market Bill, which is now going to be revised by the House of Lords in the United Kingdom to avoid clashes with the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.
Last but not least, an OPEC+ summit is beginning today in Vienna. Oil exporters will review the current supply volume and the market conditions. They are likely to continue increasing the barrels supplied per day as was their earlier plan. Nevertheless, it is possible that they could also choose to put some more oil on hold due to the resurgence of the coronavirus, which is decreasing the demand for oil.
