Bank of America (BoA) has been tracking the credit card use of clients who received the stimulus payments authorized by the American Rescue Plan (ARP). For the seven days ending March 27, 2021, aggregate credit card spending was up 82 percent from a year ago. Where is the money being spent? Everywhere. Furniture stands out, which reflects the heated home-building industry. And then electronics, clothing, airlines, home improvement, and restaurants (in that order of year-over-year growth). The two-year percentage change tells a better story because the world came to a halt the week of March 27, 2020. For the seven…
Insights & Advice
Tag: COVID vaccine
Capital Ideas: Politics unusual
COVID-19 Vaccination Update As of February 2, 2021, 32.8 million Americans have now received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. That was more than those who tested positive for the virus. The average daily rate of vaccinations has reached 1.34 million doses per day. The average daily rate may be affected by the snowstorms of last week, but it seems to be trending upward. Trading a Pullback Valuations are staggeringly high. Nonetheless, I remain invested in equity for the portion of my portfolios intended for that. Despite sky-high valuations, I am hesitant to take bold defensive moves. I…
We ain’t normal
After watching the catastrophe at the U.S. Capitol building last week, it’s clear to me that we ain’t normal. But that’s not the only way to measure our lack of normalness. According to the CNN Business “Back-to-Normal” index, we ain’t normal. The Back-to-Normal index represents how close the U.S. economy is to returning to its pre-pandemic level. As I write this column, the index tells us that the economy is operating at 75 percent of where it was in early March 2020. The index was hovering around 83 percent for most of October 2020. Since then, it has been trending downward….
Markets bet on stimulus sweepstakes
The first week of December saw all three major averages climb to minor new highs. The trigger was more good news on the delivery timetable of the coronavirus vaccines. The expected speedy distribution of the first batch of wonder drugs encouraged investors, even while the number of COVID-19 deaths and cases nationwide continued to skyrocket. In addition, a new dose of hope-ium has infected investors on the stimulus front. The Democrats $2.2 trillion proposal has gone nowhere since July, thanks to the Republican-controlled Senate. The Democrats then reduced their price tag in an effort to forge a compromise before the…