See what’s driving market performance around the world in today’s Morning Lineup.  Bespoke’s Morning Lineup is the best way to start your trading day.  Read it now by starting a two-week free trial to Bespoke Premium.  CLICK HERE to learn more and start your free trial.

“Buying’s easier, selling’s hard – [it’s] hard to know when to get out.” – Seth Klarman

On a day when the FOMC is scheduled to announce a decision on interest rate policy and Congress is attempting to hammer out a stimulus bill, the latest data on Retail Sales is providing ammunition on the part of policymakers to go big.  Retail Sales for the month of November were weak on all counts both relative to expectations and on an absolute basis.  The headline index, for example, was expected to decline by 0.3% but actually saw a much larger decline, falling 1.1%. Later today, we’ll also get updates to Markit’s Manufacturing and Services Indices, Business Inventories, and Homebuilder Sentiment for the month of December.

Be sure to check out today’s Morning Lineup for updates on the latest market news and events, a recap of economic data out of Europe, an update on the latest national and international COVID trends, and much more.

Along with just about every other asset priced in dollars, the price of bitcoin has been on the rebound in recent days, and in early trading today, prices are back above $20,000 to record highs. Again, as we discussed a couple of weeks ago when bitcoin was taking out its highs from late 2017, the latest run to $20,000 hasn’t been accompanied by nearly the amount of hype as there was back in 2017.  All those people must be too busy focusing on SPACs.