U.S. Treasury yields rose slightly on Wednesday as bond-market trading remained calm in a holiday-shortened week.
Oil futures rise Wednesday, buoyed by industry data that shows U.S. crude inventories fell last week.
Even poor Asian countries managed COVID-19 far better than the United States and Europe. But whether 2020 thus marked the beginning of a new "Asian Century" still remains to be seen.
While the pandemic eventually will be brought under control, there is still no end in sight for the epidemic of deaths of despair.
Around 1,000 doses of the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine, which needs to be stored at about -70C, were returned after being transported in a picnic hamper cool box, as the EU’s mass vaccination campaign comes under fire.
The $600 payments will arrive via direct deposit in some people's accounts as soon as tonight, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a tweet, and will continue into next week.
"Today we discovered Colorado’s first case of the COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7, the same variant discovered in the UK.," Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said in a tweet Tuesday.
The euphoria of both year-end 2019 and year-end 2017 led to nasty market declines the following February.
