S&P 500 hits record high as US faces “most difficult” period

Markets were mixed on Wednesday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent to a record high. However, the STOXX Europe 600 slipped 0.1 percent, as did the Shanghai Composite.

“The beginning of Covid-19 vaccinations is getting close, bringing ‘buy on any dip’ to the forefront,” said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at the Leuthold Group.

In the meantime, though, the pandemic continues to wreak havoc, not least in the US, where the number of people in hospitals for the disease now exceeds 100,000.

“I don’t think we’ve ever seen this number,” said Dr Janis Orlowski, chief health care officer at the Association of American Medical Colleges. “We’re headed into a bad, bad, bad two or three weeks.”

Indeed, Dr Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Wednesday that the next few months will be among “the most difficult in the public health history of this nation”.