Victory in one Georgia Senate run-off race and likely victory in the other mean that the Democrats would have majorities in the House and the Senate, which will clearly boost Joe Biden’s chances of passing major legislation. That said, it won’t all be plain sailing from here…

Democrats look to have won both Georgia Senate run-off races

Tax and spend on its way?

Stronger growth, but markets remain cautious

Today - Final, final confirmation of Biden’s victory

Opinion polls had suggested a tight race in both Georgia Senate seat run-off races and that is the way it played out – remember that these two elections came about from the fact that local law requires the victor to win at least 50% of the popular vote, which no candidate achieved back in November. Continue Reading

Consumer prices in the Eurozone are expected to show incremental improvement in December, but economists say the headline reading will remain in the red to show a fifth straight month of price contraction.

A poll of analysts says the annual inflation rate improved to -0.2% last month from -0.3% in November. The core rate is expected to hold steady at a record low 0.2%. Both figures remain distant from the European Central Bank inflation target of near but below 2%, with monetary policymakers reiterating expectations of consumer price growth of 1.0% in 2021 on the same day they announced an increase and extension of the bank’s Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP).

“With markets priced for monetary policy to remain accommodative in response to a further sustained period of lowflation, clearly inflation risks need to be weighed carefully,” Oxford Economics said. “But in our view the threat of a surge in inflation asserted by many is overstated, and we expect core inflation to remain weak for some time.” (LiveSquawk - Continue Reading)

Federal Reserve officials unanimously backed holding the pace of asset purchases steady when they met last month.

“All participants judged that it would be appropriate to continue those purchases at least at the current pace, and nearly all favored maintaining the current composition of purchases,” according to minutes of their Dec. 15-16 meeting published Wednesday. “A couple of participants indicated that they were open to weighting purchases of Treasury securities toward longer maturities.”

The Federal Open Market Committee held interest rates near zero and strengthened its commitment to bond buying at the meeting, pledging to maintain a $120 billion monthly pace of purchases until there is “substantial further progress” toward its employment and inflation goals. (Bloomberg - Continue Reading)