It’s Friday yet again, which means.a roundup of some stock market news. There are many signs of the economy starting to reopen, but the markets didn’t like that one bit apparently. This was another mixed week, going back and forth between green and red days. Let’s hope the fears of inflation will cool off and we can continue our upwards trajectory.
Amazon Top Clothing Retailer In US
Amazon has officially become the number 1 seller of clothes in the US, according to data from Wells Fargo. They estimate sales of clothing and shoes on Amazon grew 15% in 2020, reaching $41 Billion.
They beat out other top performers like Walmart, Target and many others. This is just another indicator of Amazon’s overall dominance.
Powell Calms Market Temporarily
On Wednesday, Jerome Powell spoke once more about the economy. He predicts the GDP will grow 6.5% this year, compared to 4.5% last year.
Despite this bullish outlook, the Central Bank said they wouldn’t change their plans to leave interest rates near 0 through 2023 and will continue buying $120 Billion per month of bonds to help stimulate the economy.
Wednesday morning was looking all red, despite it being St. Patrick’s Day, as the market anticipated Jerome Powell speaking later that day. His reassurance seemed to help this time, closing the day in mostly green, to match the holiday.
Just one day later, stocks crashed yet again. Bond yields hit 1.74%, its highest level since January 2020. Powell’s dovish message was apparently to blame. We’ll have to see how today will play out once the markets open.
Disneyland Park to Reopen
On April 30th, Disneyland is set to officially reopen. After being closed for the past year, people are craving some Disney experiences. Disney World in Florida has been reopened for 9 months and there is no shortage of demand.
They will be taking all safety precautions and only be opening at 15% capacity to start, but the company is finally making moves to get back to their prime.
California had much stricter rules than Florida, refusing to allow Disney to open their gates for quite some time. I’ll be curious to see how their stock reacts to the reopening.
AMC Theaters Opening
AMC announced that 98% of their US locations will be reopening on March 26th. The news came hours after Walt Disney announced Disneyland will be reopening on April 30th.
They have been closed for more than a year because of the pandemic. It will be interesting to see if demand is still there after a surge in digital steaming services.
Tax Deadline Moved Back
To further compensate for the hard times Americans were faced with the past year, the IRS have officially pushed back the tax deadlines for 2020. They stated, they want to continue doing everything possible to help taxpayers through these touch times related to the pandemic.
As a result, the IRS has pushed the tax deadline from April 15th to now May 17th. We have an entire month to get our finances in order and submit our tax forms.
Morgan Stanley Accepts Bitcoin
Morgan Stanley is the first big US Bank to officially offer its clients access to bitcoin funds. This is just the first step in many more banks and corporations accepting the coin. We are seeing a new age in the digital currency.
Right now, only clients with at least $5 Million in the bank are qualified. So only the wealthy can get involved in this account, which sounds like they still are hesitant to put too much risk into this, but we are finally moving in the right direction.
