It has been a strong week for equities as further dovishness from the Federal Reserve helped bolster market sentiment. Investors were relatively unfazed by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s further reminders that the pandemic is far from over, or by surprisingly high applications for US state unemployment insurance.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine began its rollout this week to vulnerable over-80’s and health & care staff cohorts. This week marked the first distribution of over 800,000 doses expected to be delivered in the coming weeks and the four million expected by the end of the month.

It has been another strong week for markets with the S&P 500 Index (measuring the performance of the 500 largest listed US companies) hitting all-time highs against a backdrop of a surging bond market. Previous iterations of this publication have highlighted the trend of fairly rapidly and persistently rising bond yields over recent weeks; the pause in this dynamic this week has been slightly strange, especially given the strong print on US retail sales which was announced on Thursday.

London – Sanlam Investments today announces that it has agreed to assume responsibility for managing eight funds currently managed by Smith & Williamson Investment Management LLP.

President-elect Joe Biden has unveiled a $1.9tn Coronavirus relief proposal, aimed at urgently combating the economic crisis which the pandemic has triggered. As the US faces its deadliest stage in its fight against the virus, Biden described the moment as “a crisis of deep human suffering”. If adopted, the proposal would tack on $1,400 to the $600 in direct payments for individuals that Congress approved recently.

Join Sanlam and the South African Chamber of Commerce as Arthur Kamp, Chief Economist at Sanlam Investments, gives his outlook on the global economy for the year to come.