1. Wall St to spook our market today

US stock markets have been in and out of record territory overnight and the local market is tipped to open lower today, but the Aussie share market indexes are in line to be up six weeks in a row. On Wall Street, the stalemate between the Democrats and Republicans in the final weeks of the Trump Presidency, over the size of a stimulus programme (that’s like our very successful JobKeeper programme), is starting to spook investors. And new Coronavirus infections topping 200,000 a day (taking the US total to 15 million) isn’t great for stocks either.

2. Win for Labor & the Unions

The Federal Government looks set to cave into Union and Labor Party pressure to alter one aspect of its proposed industrial relations bill. We were told that businesses KO’d by COVID-19 would be allowed to make new wage and workplace conditions changes that might not pass what is called the Better Off Overall Test. This means changes to an existing wage agreement could take away some things, but they have to be more than made up by some new and improved changes to a work contract. The unions were never going to buy that.

3. 2021 set to be a boom year

It’s been a huge week for the economy and the drop of data says2021 is set to be a boom year. The Westpac Consumer Confidence number is at a 10-year high. The NAB business confidence reading is at a 31-month high, while the bank’s business conditions statistic is at a 20-month high. Consumers and businesses are actually more confident now than they were months before the Coronavirus came to town. And the world’s most-watched investment bank, Goldman Sachs, tips US stocks will be up 16% next year. And like it or not, our stock market plays follow the leader with Wall Street. Playing stocks for next year looks well and truly on! And for anyone thinking about overseas travel, our dollar is going up.

4. California megachurches rebrand as 'strip clubs'

The pastors of two megachurches in California have 'stripped' off their ties following a ruling that strip clubs are able to remain open during strict lockdown while churches are not. Last week, the US Supreme Court ordered a reexamination into the restrictions on indoor religious services in the state.

5. Tech stocks push indexes lower

A fall in tech stocks saw the major US indexes close lower on Wednesday, with Netflix and Salesforce falling more than 3%, and Apple and Amazon falling more than 2%. The Dow was down 105.07 points or 0.35% for the day to 30,068.81, the S&P moved 29.43 points or 0.79% lower to close at 3,672.82 and the Nasdaq lost 243.82 points or 1.94% to 12.338.95.