This week, Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. Based upon the list of priorities communicated so far, the administration appears focused on ramping up vaccine distribution and economic relief in his first few days in office.

The S&P 500, a broad measure of large publicly-traded US companies, advanced to another all-time high last week as the Democratic Party gained control of the Senate via the run-off elections in Georgia. The Democrats will control both houses of Congress when President-elect Biden is sworn in, which makes the prospect of significant additional fiscal stimulus more likely, both in the form of direct cash payments to Americans as well as infrastructure spending.

On Sunday, President Trump signed into law an agreement for a long-awaited stimulus bill aimed at mitigating the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the President requested a vote in Congress to increase the direct payments to individuals from $600 to $2,000.