Stock markets opened slightly higher in the first minutes of trading Monday, pushing new records to start 2021.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 40 points, or 0.1 percent, at 30,647, and the S&P 500 was up 10 points, or 0.2 percent, at 3,765.
Stocks closed out strong in 2020 despite an unprecedented economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as the government pumped massive amounts of cash into the economy and the Federal Reserve dropped interest rates to zero.
The quick development of a COVID-19 vaccine and hopes that the crisis would abate in 2021 helped markets recover from huge initial losses in February and March to make overall gains by year’s end.
All eyes are now on Georgia’s two Senate runoff races scheduled for Tuesday. If Democrats sweep both contests, they will flip the Senate and control both chambers of Congress and the White House, albeit by the slimmest of margins.