1) The East Coast is bracing for a very heavy snow storm which is forecast to blanket Massachuset, New York and Pennsylvania. The storm system started on the West Coast over the weekend and is moving east, with some of the most intense snow and rainfall the region has seen in years. More than 63 million people are under some sort of winter storm watch this week. The winter storm is expected to strengthen as moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic clashes with cold air in the north to give the ingredients for a major snowstorm on Wednesday and Thursday. Forecasts are for 3-6 inches of snow from central Virginia up through Maine, with a swath of 6-12 inches or more, and higher amounts locally. Some isolated locations at higher elevations could potentially see up to 2 feet of snow and wind gusts that could exceed 40-50 mph. Such storms always wrought economic havoc.
2) Speaker Nancy Pelosi has invited congressional leaders to a meeting in a bid to break the months long stalemate over coronavirus relief negotiations, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. There has been major movement in recent weeks toward a potential deal, including the bipartisan proposal finally unveiled by centrist senators. But still, chances of another coronavirus stimulus bill passing are far from certain. A recently introduced $908 billion dollar compromise plan has been broken up into two parts. The goal of this is to produce a small-scale bill that can get broad support by separating out controversial provisions.
3) The mega-retailer Walmart will start testing driverless delivery trucks in Arkansas next year. Since 2019, Walmart has been working with a company called Gatik to test autonomous delivery trucks from its store in Bentonville, Arkansas. After logging more than 70,000 miles with a human driver-observer to guard that nothing went wrong, Walmart and Gatik say they’re ready to operate without any human drivers in the trucks. This makes Gatik one of the first companies to operate a fully autonomous route in this way. These delivery truck’s strategy is to use a simplified approach of using autonomous vehicles on specific routes. This limits the type of factors that can paralyze robots with indecision. Walmart has been a very active developer of the driverless delivery vehicles.
4) Stock market closings for – 15 DEC 20:
Dow 30,199.31 up by 337.76
Nasdaq 12,595.06 up by 155.02
S&P 500 3,694.62 up by 47.13
10 Year Yield: up at 0.92%
Oil: up at $47.59