Daily Market Color December 8, 2020S&P 500 and Nasdaq Close at All-Time Highs Fueled by stimulus hopes, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at all-time highs Congress is hurrying to pass a stimulus bill before year-end. Major indices closed higher on the day – both the S&P 500 and DJIA rose 0.3%. Treasury yields and swap rates ended mixed – the 10-year UST yield closed almost flat at 0.91%. Senator Mitch McConnell suggests Congress set aside major sticking points to pass targeted stimulus bill McConnell commented, “What I recommend is we set aside liability and set aside state and local, and pass those things that we can agree on knowing full well we’ll be back at this after the 1st of the year.” Democrats rejected the compromise and are pushing to continue negotiating the $908 billion bipartisan proposal. Pfizer vaccine could be approved as early as Thursday Today, the FDA announced Pfizer’s vaccine provides strong protection against COVID-19 for the first 10 days of the dose. The organization has not yet confirmed how long the protection will last, though research suggests a second dose could increase its longevity. Borrowers rush to close their loans ahead of Main Street Lending Program’s December 31st expiration date Because the underwriting for new MSLP loans can take up to a month, many borrowers are having difficulty securing funds before the MSLP deadline. The Fed has set a deadline of December 14th for new applications and said in a statement that “There are many banks, including big banks, that are continuing to lend and to submit applications through December 14th, and they expect that their loans will be completely funded by the time the program ends on December 31.”
