Capitalism, and can you afford it?  I certainly hope so!

US average hourly wage is $24.87 per  Trading Economics

So, with the S&P at $3699 divided by $24.87 you have to now work 149 hours to buy 1 share. This compares to some 30(or less) hours of work needed from  the 1950's to the  1980's to buy 1 share. What happened in the early 1980's ? - think about it. Besides, how many people do you know that actually earn $25, since, according to the Brookings institution, almost half of US workers between ages 18 and 64 are employed in low wage jobs. (The above # of course ignore the current covid disaster)

 Quick Overview is up to date

 Wall Street and finance workers could get COVID vaccines before most Americans

The American Bankers Association said it has asked for the CDC to designate financial services industry as “essential workers,” following guidelines issued by the Department of Homeland Security.

Some peoples sense of entitlement is just stunning!

Notes Today: 

• Bloomberg: U.K. and EU pause Brexit talks after intensive negotiations fail to resolve key issues, as PM Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen schedule crisis call..

• A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore DACA to its pre-2017 status.

• US Nonfarm Payrolls rose by 245,000 in November vs. 469,000 expected   

• US Factory Orders rose by 1% in October vs. 0.8% expected - the sixth straight monthly gain. 

• The U.S. trade deficit widened 1.7% to $63.1 billion in October. 

• Germany Factory Orders MoM at 2.9%, above forecasts of 1.5% 

• Trump is doing his best to jam in the opening of oil and gas drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  The sale of leases is planned for 6 January 2021, just ahead of the inauguration of the US president-elect, Joe Biden, who opposes the move.

• Bloomberg: With a vaccine on the way, congressional failure to pass Covid relief now would put millions of jobs and thousands of small businesses at risk.

 

A must read article by Nicholas Kristof of the NYT regarding Pornhub. 

It’s one of the biggest websites in the world. Every month it attracts more visitors than Netflix, Yahoo or Amazon, and its corporate owners rake in vast sums of money.

Notes Today: 

• The US Labor Department said initial jobless claims dropped to 712,000, a decrease of 75,000 from the previous week's revised level of 787,000. 

• The British pound continues to outperform its rivals, despite comments that significant disagreements remain in the trade talks, and that the outcome was uncertain. 
  

• Warner Bros. (T) will send all its 2021 movies to HBO Max the same day they hit theaters. So, when are they going to get HBO Max onto the Roku platform? This century? The old HBO at $15 is on Roku, so why not the MAX - that also goes for $15?  Probably ATT smugness – at work. 
  

  
  
  
  

Despite Zuckerberg’s statement that he “does not want to be the arbiter of truth” of what is posted on the site - Facebook (AKA the plague on humanity) said it would remove posts that contain claims about Covid-19 vaccines that have been debunked by public health experts. WOW, if they "really" start removing BS it will be a shadow of its former self.

In Addition: A group of 20 to 30 state attorneys general is reportedly readying a suit against  Facebook. 

Notes Today:

• Costco  (COST) November sales rose 15.1% to 15.67 billion, the retailer said Wednesday. Online sales rose 71.3% in November and 86.4% in the quarter. Stock’s down – obviously.
  

• Australia AiG Performance of Construction Index rose from previous 52.7 to 55.3 in November
• Australia Commonwealth Bank Composite PMI came in at 54.9, above expectations.

•  Bloomberg: The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation that could lead to Chinese companies including behemoths like Alibaba and Baidu getting kicked off U.S. exchanges if Washington regulators aren’t allowed to review their financial audits. The bill easily cleared the Senate in May. Trump is expected to sign it. 

• Snowflake Inc.’s (SNOW) Shares were down 9% after-hours Wednesday. The cloud company reported a Q3 net loss of $168.9 million, versus a net loss of $88.1 million, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue more than doubled to $159.6 million from $73 YoY. 
  

• People poured an estimated $81.8 billion into equity ETFs in November. 

• The U.K. became the first western country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine, with its regulator clearing the Pfizer-BioNTech shot ahead of decisions in the U.S. and European Union. Meanwhile, U.S. hospitalizations and deaths are totally out of control.