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“The path to innovation begins with curiosity” – Robert Iger, The Ride of a Lifetime

After opening right around the flat-line Sunday evening, futures plummetted overnight right in unison with the European open as fears over the spread of a ‘mutant’ more contagious strain of COVID in the UK have prompted travel restrictions into and out of the country.  While the COVID news in the UK seems like a reasonable catalyst, we have a hard time squaring that with the fact that the UK news was out early Sunday and futures opened last night flat to slightly higher.  A more likely explanation may be the fact that investors are taking profits into what will be an illiquid close to the year.

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

The charts below show the S&P 500’s daily performance over the last six months and on an intraday basis for the last 15 trading days.  After taking today’s declines into account, the S&P 500 will open the week for trading right about where it was ten days ago. Based on just the opening levels at least, today’s weakness will do little to break any significant support levels.