US stocks climb
US stocks were rallying as supply chain issues improved, mega-cap tech stocks led the charge as global growth outlooks got upgraded, and as South Africa continued to see mild COVID cases. The post-Thanksgiving panic appeared to be over and many investors were scrambling to get back in this stock market.
While bottleneck issues were far from over, it appeared some progress was being made. A Port of LA executive noted that the domestic supply chain was becoming more fluid.
FAANG and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stocks got hit hard on both global growth concerns and after the Fed turned hawkish. While optimism was high that the Omicron variant won’t lead to widespread lockdowns in the US, some restrictions could threaten the outlook and allow the Fed to wait a month before accelerating its taper plan.
In South Africa, the news was still mostly positive after Mediclinic said, “a lower percentage of admitted COVID-19 patients require intensive care and ventilation.” South African epidemiologists noted that there were still concerns that South Africa was seeing an increase with reinfections, which implied past reinfection was not providing much protection and the data was limited with vaccinated patients.
Ukraine
President Joseph Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a discussion for over two hours, covering a wide range of topics from the escalating tensions between Russia and the Ukraine, hacking attacks, Iran, and another round of Russian-US strategic stability.
President Biden delivered a clear warning that if a military escalation in the Ukraine occurs, that would be met with strong economic sanctions and other responses.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin bulls were scaling back in, as most traders remained optimistic that this week’s grilling of crypto CEOs on Capitol Hill would not yield any immediate landmark legislation. Fears of a dead-cat-bounce appeared to be over and many traders were targeting a return to the USD 55,000 to USD 60,000 trading range within the next couple of months.
The end-of-year bullish calls of USD 90,000 or USD 100,000 were a bit too optimistic, but that was how the cryptoverse works. Next year, we will quickly know if those frothy targets will later get justified. The biggest risk for Bitcoin no longer seemed to be regulation, it was if investors decide to go big on altcoins.