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“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it … he who doesn’t … pays it.” – Albert Einstein

The last day of August and the first day of the week are on pace for gains, but futures are trading off their highs from earlier this morning.  It was a busy weekend on the political scene as polling and betting markets continue to show a much tighter Presidential race and race for control of the Senate as well.  What does that mean?  Even more political ads for the next two months than you would have expected!

Be sure to check out today’s Morning Lineup for a rundown of the latest stock-specific news of note, market performance in the US and Europe, economic data out of Asia, trends related to the COVID-19 outbreak, and much more.

2020 has definitely been the year or large-cap Nasdaq stocks.  Besides rallying more than 35%, the Nasdaq 100, which tracks the Nasdaq’s largest stocks, has traded higher on more than 64% of all trading days so far in 2020.  We’ve been updating the chart below throughout the summer, and it shows the percentage of up days for the Nasdaq 100 by year.  While 2020 has often been near the top of the rankings, through 167 trading days, no other year in the Nasdaq 100’s history (since 1985) has had a higher percentage of positive days. The only years that have even been close were 1995 (63.5%) and 2017 (63.5%).