thependulumswings

Friends

It appears that at around midmorning the coronavirus, Bernie Sanders could be President, and global economic slowdown all at once mattered to market participants. Stocks dropped nearly 400 points at a franticly quick pace. But, as the trading session wore on, buyers did appear and stocks were able to erase a good portion of those losses. Now, you can attach any or all of those items to the list of reasons why stocks had such a quick deceleration, but as I say often – certain things don’t matter until they do. For example, I’ve been in the investment business for 35 years. All that time I’ve heard how our budget deficits and debt will sink this country. Well, budget deficits and debt haven’t really mattered for 35 years, and my guess is that they will continue not to matter- until they do.

Now, after those deep thoughts let’s see what the markets did today. By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 128 points to finish the day at 29,219. The S&P 500 was down 13 points to close at 3,373. Gold was up $10 to trade at $1,622 per ounce, while oil was up $.48 to trade at $53.77 per barrel WTI.

Again, the coronavirus news certainly isn’t good, but some say the trend is actually getting better. We’ll see. Whatever the case, the effects of the virus on global growth cannot be ignored. Stocks held in once again today, but perhaps we got a glimpse of what happens when certain things start to matter. On the other hand, all this is simply transitory for long term investors with a good game plan. Anyway, let’s see how the week finishes out tomorrow.

Have a nice evening everyone.

Jim