Week in a Glance: Brexit, New Strain, US Stimulus, Tesla and XRP

Dec 28, 2020

The main event of the last week without a doubt is a trade deal between the EU and the UK. The sides reached an "agreement on zero tariffs and zero quotas." This outcome was the most likely, so nothing extraordinary happened. The problems of the UK do not end there: a new strain of the virus, the situation with the pandemic, lockdowns, damage to the economy - this is only a part of the negative that Britain will have to deal with at the start of 2021.

And if the negotiations between the EU and the UK looked like a tragedy, then the epic with stimulus in the US looks more like an absurd comedy. Last week, Democrats and Republicans finally came to an agreement. Happy end? No, because Trump decided to remind everyone about himself and refused to sign the bill, agreed in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Rationale - $ 600 stimulus checks is not enough, $2000 is needed. And after that even more ridiculous things began. The Democrats agreed with Trump's demand and wanted to re-vote the bill with checks for $2000, but the Republicans (!) blocked this initiative. In general, it was impossible to watch what was happening without laughing. Especially, after President Donald Trump signed the $900 billion coronavirus relief package on Sunday.

On pandemic fronts, markets were focused on a new virus strain that had already made its way to Germany and the US, and news of new restrictions in the UK.

Tesla's inclusion in the SP500 index was an important event last week. But a sharp rise in shares did not follow. On the contrary, on the first day of trading in the new status, Tesla lost about 6.5%.

The scandal of the week can be considered the SEC's lawsuit against Ripple, accusing it of an unregistered placement of securities for $ 1.3 billion. As a result, XRP cryptocurrency lost over 60% of its value.

The coming week will be the last week of the outgoing year. Given that this is a week of Christmas break in many countries, low liquidity will be present in the markets, which will remain an extremely explosive moment, coupled with a high probability of starting profit taking.