U.S. futures are trading higher this morning, looking to extend Tuesday's gains.
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Good morning, Bull Sheeters. It’s a risk-on day as stimulus talks and vaccine progress lift investor sentiment from Tokyo to New York.
We also have a big stock market debut today. DoorDash begins trading in a few hours, and the bidding so far has been fierce. The IPO share price is above 100 bucks, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing sources in the know.
Let’s see where else investors are putting their cash.
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When will the wider economy catch up to the stock markets? It’s a question that’s been top-of-mind since equities started their impressive comeback in April, even as the global economy sputtered and wheezed.
We’ve seen GDP climb back, but it’s been an incredibly uneven recovery, and economic output is still well behind pre-pandemic levels.
So, it’s particularly timely to get a check-in with the finance chiefs at the world’s biggest companies. Deloitte’s quarterly CFO Signals survey—which we’ve covered in this space before—shows an improved outlook as we head into 2021. Even those downers in Europe see better times in 2021.
The most bullish subset of CFOs can be found in China where nearly half (47%) say the economy is “good now,” and 60% say it will be even better a year from now. CFOs in North America have a similarly rosy outlook, as the graphic above shows. But those same CFOs are concerned about the first half of 2021 as stimulus talks continue to bog down and they maintain cautious optimism about the speed of the vaccine rollout.
The survey was conducted in mid-November when the S&P was trading around 3,500. (It closed at 3,702 yesterday). At that mid-November level, nearly 60% of survey respondents expected the benchmark to climb further by the year-end. But here’s the thing—”80% also say it is overvalued.”
80%!
Given the mid-November timing, just as Joe Biden was being named President-elect, the CFOs reflected on policy matters, too. They have a big wish list for Washington. “As a new administration takes over, CFOs overwhelmingly support a new stimulus package, infrastructure investment, de-escalating US-China trade tensions, less protectionist trade, and the federal government leading a COVID-19 response,” the report reads.
“Although there are industry differences, CFOs’ hopes for Washington center largely on improved bipartisanship and cooperation in getting important things done, and on unifying the country with more ‘moderation,’ ‘transparency,’ and ‘decency.'”
Let’s hope Washington is listening.
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Have a nice day, everyone. I’ll see you here tomorrow.
Bernhard Warner
@BernhardWarner
Bernhard.Warner@Fortune.com
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