The US Consumer Confidence Index rose month-on-month in December, as families were more optimistic about the economic and financial outlook. Data released on Thursday showed that the final value of the University of Michigan Consumer Confidence Index rose to 70.6 from a 10-year low of 67.4 reached in November. The investigation date for the latest report is from November 22 to December 20. Investigation Director Richard Curtin said in a statement, “We have done too few interviews to accurately capture the impact of the rapid spread of omicron in the United States. Consumer confidence and spending in January may be suppressed, but now we are talking about new strains. It’s too early for the final impact."

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers warned that the U.S. economy will enter a test period in the next few years and may fall into a long-term stagnation after the recession. In an interview with Bloomberg Economic Research Podcast "Stephanomics", Summers said that the Fed has not yet discovered the risk of inflation, and that its slow response to inflation may lead to a major economic downturn. "If we can manage the economy sustainably under overheating conditions, that would be great, but in the 1970s we learned the lesson that not only does an overheating economy bring about high inflation, but inflation will continue to rise," Summers said . "This is why I worry that we have reached the point where it is difficult to reduce inflation without triggering a recession."

In the United States, inflation-adjusted consumer spending stagnated in November, but in the face of the highest inflation rate in decades and the rapid proliferation of omicron, perhaps the stagnation of consumer spending may last longer. Data released by the US Department of Commerce on Thursday showed that after adjusting for inflation, the increase in purchases of goods and services in November was basically the same as the 0.7% in October. No inflation-adjusted nominal spending grew by 0.6%, which was in line with the median expected value in a survey of economists.

US President Biden signed a law on Thursday prohibiting the import of goods from China’s Xinjiang region unless companies can prove that these goods are not derived from forced labor. Washington's move is expected to exacerbate tensions between China and the United States over the Xinjiang issue. The Xinjiang-related bill was passed unanimously in the Senate and the House of Representatives earlier this month, showing that no matter how big differences between the two parties may be on many major issues, the Republicans and Democrats share the same aspirations regarding China policy. China's Xinjiang occupies an important position in the global supply chain. Xinjiang is the main source of cotton for clothing and a major production center for polysilicon, the raw material for solar panels. Solar panels are considered to be the key to the global transition to fossil fuels.

The Canadian economy finally maintained its growth momentum in 2021, and November was the sixth consecutive month of growth. According to preliminary data released by Statistics Canada on Thursday, GDP grew by 0.3% last month. The increase in October was 0.8%. With the economic growth in November, Canada's GDP has returned to the level before the outbreak for the first time, and it indicates that the economy is expected to grow again strongly for another quarter. The pace of economic recovery may strengthen investors’ predictions of the Bank of Canada’s upcoming interest rate hike cycle. The market expects the Bank of Canada to raise interest rates five times in the next 12 months.

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