Today the State of Georgia determines who will run the Senate in Washington, if the Democrats win, it will be a Washington under Democratic control. If the Republicans win, then it will be some checks and balances but as to how much we will wait and see.
Equity markets have turned positive, waving off the Georgia state outcome and most likely looking to the future of a post pandemic economy. Meanwhile the U.S. dollar weakened again due to China’s decision to lift its official yuan exchange rate by its highest margin since it abandoned a dollar peg in 2005, and the Georgia runoff. China’s central bank set the official yuan midpoint at 6.4760 per dollar before the market opened, up 1% from the previous fix.
The Canadian dollar rallied not only on China’s announcement buy also on the across the board rally in commodities. Oil touched $50 USD a barrel, gold is close to $2000 USD an ounce, and “Dr.Copper” is $3.63 USD a pound close to a one year high.
The Canadian government has issued further travel restrictions in light of new variant Covid-19 strains emerging around the world. Starting Thursday, Ottawa will require anyone arriving in Canada by plane to provide proof of a negative COVID test, plus provide adequate self-quarantine arrangements, if they are unable to provide such arrangements, they may end up in a federal institution. If they break the rules they may go to prison.
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