Home prices continue to climb. While some industries continue to struggle during the pandemic, housing data in the United States (US) remains a strong point of the US economy. Standard & Poor’s 20-city composite of home prices rose by the most since 2014 in October as the pandemic continues to steer consumer behavior toward single-family…

Lessons learned from the Fed in 2020. The Federal Reserve (Fed) will remain in focus for markets in 2021.

Solid holiday shopping season. Holiday sales grew 3%, beating forecasts for a 2.4% increase according to MasterCard’s SpendingPulse. Online sales rose 49% year over year. These results were impressive for a recessionary period—the comparable figure dropped 3.5% in 2008—and highlight the resiliency of the US consumer and the benefits of stimulus.

“The 10-year breakeven rate gives us a sense of what market participants think inflation will be over the next 10 years, and right now markets are saying it will be right around the Federal Reserve’s 2% target—a pickup from the 10-year average of about 1.7% for CPI inflation,” said LPL Chief Market Strategist Ryan Detrick.