Image: Greg Ory / Ataur Rahman / Protocol
Up and to the right

Good morning! This Wednesday, markets are booming, Antony Blinken has a China plan and Twitter's about to start blue-checking again.
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We're off tomorrow for the holiday, and you'll get this week's issue of the Index newsletter on Friday. (It's a good one.) We'll be back with your regularly-scheduled programming on Sunday. In the meantime, have a wonderful Thanksgiving, stay safe and send me all your favorite recipes and Black Friday purchases!
The numbers, they're good! The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed yesterday at $30,046.24, its highest ever, after the Biden administration was allowed to start the transition processes, Janet Yellen looked set to become the new treasury secretary and a vaccine looked well within reach. The S&P 500 closed at $3,635.41, also its highest ever. The world may still feel weird and bad, but the markets are feeling good about the future.
In fact, numbers everywhere are up and to the right. Bitcoin passed $19,000 for the first time in three years. Stripe, already Silicon Valley's biggest startup, is reportedly in talks to raise money at a valuation as high as $100 billion.
The tech industry continues to dominate the markets. Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook recently accounted for almost a quarter of the S&P 500's market cap, The Wall Street Journal notes, after a huge surge in tech stock prices during the pandemic.
There's a new normal coming politically, economically and culturally. Nobody knows exactly what it looks like, but the markets like what they can see so far.
Anna Kramer writes: Antony Blinken is here to fix your China problem. Chinese supply chain and national security questions could be among 2021's biggest headaches for tech, and Biden's pick for secretary of state will be the man in charge of forging a new U.S.-China relationship.
Blinken's known as a multilateralist centrist, a man interested in problem-solving through coalitions and international institutions. What does that mean for his take on China?
Don't forget Biden's other national security picks, all of whom will play a role in determining rules and trade relationships for tech companies not just in China, but across the globe.
Put them all together, and you've got a team of leaders uninterested in the Trump era of "America First." Hopefully that means we can all spend a lot less time thinking about TikTok.
Contactless payments are no longer a nice to have.
At Synchrony, we understand the challenges of running a business. Our financial and technology solutions, like touchless payment tools, help you offer your customers more tailored experiences, so they keep coming back.
On Protocol: Twitter's Christine Su said the goal for her user safety team isn't as simple as fixing everything:
Fred Wilson didn't hate that VC-bashing New Yorker story as much as some others did:
The Georgia runoffs are already a mess on social media, and a group of Senators urged Susan Wojcicki to do more about it:
Microsoft will open a datacenter region in Sweden next year, powered by renewable energy, and plans to help re-skill 150,000 people in the country as part of the process.
Netflix is betting on New Mexico. It plans to spend $1 billion with ABQ Studios in Albuquerque, and will expand the studio to make it among the largest production facilities in the country.
Piruze Sabuncu is the newest partner at Square Peg. She was a longtime Stripe exec and did a brief stint at Next Billion Ventures, and will be investing across Southeast Asia.
Getting verified on Twitter is awesome. You get more characters in your tweets, you get to be in a group chat with Jack Dorsey, all your tweets get 50 extra likes and there's even an edit button. Wait, no — actually, nothing happens when you get verified. But if you want a blue checkmark, your chance is coming back! Twitter released a new set of verification guidelines and plans to restart the process in 2021. Make sure your Wikipedia page is up to date.
Contactless payments are no longer a nice to have.
At Synchrony, we understand the challenges of running a business. Our financial and technology solutions, like touchless payment tools, help you offer your customers more tailored experiences, so they keep coming back.
Today's Source Code was written by David Pierce, with help from Anna Kramer and Shakeel Hashim. Thoughts, questions, tips? Send them to david@protocol.com, or our tips line, tips@protocol.com. Enjoy your Thanksgiving, see you Friday.
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