Just one day until it’s Turkey Day! Here are today’s top stories:
Personal Finance
Remember, COVID-19 spread when 5 million people left Wuhan for Chinese New Year, yet 50 million Americans will travel for Thanksgiving
‘Staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others from getting sick,’ AAA said. Over 261,000 people have died in the U.S. from the coronavirus.
A house by the lake or the sea? Why families buying second homes are choosing the former during COVID-19
Perceptions are shifting and the nation’s lakes and ponds are becoming more popular for families buying a vacation home.
‘It would be incredible if Jeff Bezos could maybe just hold off for a day’: Small business owners can’t compete with Amazon’s Black Friday deals
‘I don’t have the luxury of offering 30% off everything,’ said one small-business owner.
Thanksgiving is increasingly bleak for many food pantries this year — here’s why
Food insecurity is on the rise, according to ongoing U.S. Census Bureau data.
Pope Francis takes aim at anti-mask protesters: ‘They are incapable of moving outside of their own little world’
In his new book, the pontiff asks, ‘What matters more — to take care of people or keep the financial system going?’
The best Black Friday deals at Walmart this year
Look for deals on bikes, big screen TVs, headphones, game consoles, controllers and a lot of the other fun stuff—mostly online.
Elsewhere on MarketWatch
The forward-looking stock market celebrates the vaccine news, but the real economy will struggle this winter
For a still vulnerable U.S. economy now in the grips of predictable aftershocks, the case for a relapse, or a double-dip, before mid-2021 is all the more compelling.
U.S. jobless claims hit 5-week high as record coronavirus wave triggers more layoffs
The number of people who applied for state unemployment benefits in late November rose for the second week in a row to a five-week high, signaling the record rise in coronavirus cases has put a dent in hiring and could be applying the brakes to the economic recovery. Initial jobless claims increased by a seasonally adjusted 30,000 to 778,000.
U.S. consumer sentiment dips again on coronavirus angst
Consumer attitudes toward the economy suffered a jolt in November after a record increase in coronavirus cases, a closely followed “sentiment” survey showed.
