- Wall Street set out to pick up where it left in 2020
After the Industrial Dow Jones and the S&P 500 closed at record highs, the U.S. stock futures increased, and the Nasdaq missed a record. Wall Street began to be strong last year, but began to tank in February and collapsed in March as the coronavirus began to take hold in the U.S. The Dow finished by more than 7.25% in 2020 while the S&P 500 rose by more than 16%. The Nasdaq was the big winner of the stock index last year, with a gain of more than 43%.
Bitcoin increased by 305% in 2020. While down about 10% early on Monday, bitcoin jumped above $34,000 for the first time ever a day earlier.
2. Georgia hurries to establish a Senate power balance
Two runoff elections will decide on the Republicans’ control of the Senate on Tuesday in Georgia. The races are between Sen. David Perdue, Democrat Jon Ossoff and Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Rev. Raphael Warnock, Democrat. On Monday, on behalf of the candidates of their parties, Biden and President Donald Trump will be campaigning in Georgia.
3. Trump is pushing Georgia’s top election official to “searh” votes
Trump pushed Georgia’s GOP Secretary of State to overturn Biden’s victory in the Peach State. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has resisted pressure from the President, who has made veiled threats and requested Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” to change the outcome in Georgia.
On Wednesday, a group of Republican senators led by Texas’s Ted Cruz, will push for a delay in the certification of Biden’s victory during a joint session of the Congress.
4. Because vaccines roll out, Covid numbers stay high
Total U.S. cases of coronavirus were over 20.6 million as at least with 351,580 deaths. December, with over 22% of the entire US, was the deadliest month in the pandemic.
The U.K on Monday, AstraZeneca and Oxford University launched the two-dose coronavirus vaccine. The AstraZeneca-Oxford has not been authorized in the U.S.
By the end of 2020, the health authorities had targeted 20 million vaccines. And yet, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as at January 2, only about 4.2 million shots of either Moderna or Pfizer vaccines were administered.
5. In 2020, Tesla supplied almost 500,000 vehicles.
In addition to their all-time high of $718.72 per share at New Year’s Eve, Tesla shares, which grew by more than 740% during the last 12 months, rose by about 2 percent in Monday’s premarket. During the fourth quarter, Tesla said it has supplied 180,570 electric vehicles and improved its previous record and expectations. Tesla supplied 499,550 vehicles throughout 2020. Over the next decade, CEO Elon Musk has expressed his desire to raise its sales to 20 million annually. Tesla’s factories in Austin, Texas and Brandenburg, Germany, are set to be constructed by 2021.
