Mark Meadows, the outgoing White House chief of staff, has tested positive for Covid-19. The number of new cases for Covid-19 reached a record 132,540 yesterday (November 6th), up 30.5% over the week. The number of deaths rose 26.4% to 1,248. The large number of well-attended rallies held by President Trump during the election campaign will no doubt add to these numbers.
The prospect of spiralling infections appears not to have been discounted by the US stock market. The immediate focus has been the failure of the Democrats to take full control of Congress, which has proved to be optimal for investors.
The new occupant of the White House may be less adversarial on trade. Restrictions on US companies supplying Huawei have been eased of late. The Philly Sox index surged last week anticipating further, potential concessions. For all the skirmishes with Beijing, President Trump has failed to turn the tide on trade: the real goods deficit for the last three months was a record.
If confirmed (in January), a divided Congress would give the tech sector some breathing space too. Either way, the Democrats may feel less hostile towards ‘big tech’ after Facebook took a lead in fighting disinformation this week.
Summary
• But big tech let off the hook for now
• Facebook had a good election campaign
• Biden may be good for semi-conductor stocks too
