Traders had one thing on their minds this week and that was Turkey. With the Thanksgiving holiday and limited trading hours, many investors had taken the week off to celebrate. However, that didn’t stop the week from being a top-performing one. Overall, the market moved higher on light volume and continued to hit records.
Driving that was the ongoing transition of President-elect Joe Biden. This week, election results from key states were certified, making Biden the clear winner. To that end, Biden has started to announce members of his cabinet, including former Fed Chair Janet Yellen to Treasury secretary. Traders cheered the news, which sent stocks higher.
Also sending the markets higher was generally positive economic data. While the sheer amount of data was limited due to the holiday, key measures in manufacturing, consumer confidence and housing showed a rebounding economy. As did the latest GDP report, which registered a big snap-back from the pandemic-induced lows. Several positive corporate actions also helped spur the markets higher.
However, concerns about the number of rising coronavirus cases continued to put pressure on traders – especially considering the new lockdown and travel bans many states are imposing.
In the end, the shortened week was positive for the markets and sent stocks higher to hit new records.
Be sure to check out our previous Wrap here, when stocks hit record high with a slight pause.
