I started buying a portfolio of stocks in April - June....was the best time to buy stocks because the sell off in the market and crude oil was specific to the COVID fears not a major financial breakdown like in 2008-09. Was the best buy nad hold run one could have in such a short period of time. Took the seed money for kid's college fund and loaded up on diverse targetted names and college is paid for . The sell offs in some stocks were ridiculous, especially in the oil sector. Oil at $0.. like it would ever stay there and here we are back at $40 ($60 might take until next spring but got nothing but time). Met Life hit $30.....gift from heaven...... People who have little knowledge of the market are still worried and panicking but like you said...we are a vaccine away from all time highs and many many many stocks are still very far from their pre COVID levels. Public health failures rarely produce long term economic effects more than a blip when the fear passes....
The damage to local businesses and small owned business and those that will remain unemployed yes. You think Amazon, Exxon, Walmart, Google etc are going to suffer stock price decline long term due to COVID? Nope. We are talking about the stock market. The S&P500 has almost 50% of its revenues made overseas I think last time I checked. Look at the stock market since APRIL and many stocks are still in the lower half of their price range yet to recover. In 2021 as we transition back to more normal the stock market will do fine. Going to be bumpy as hell though. That is what they are talking about. Long term effects on local businesses is a separate financial issue. That is something local government will deal with for another year at least.
I'm not talking about Amazon, Walmart, etc... But to think the US economy can survive on Amazon is a bit short sighted.
A Quarter Million Americans Have Died From COVID-19. It Didn’t Have To Be This Way. The United States’ grim mortality statistics are the direct result of political decisions by the country’s leaders. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/quarter-million-coronavirus-deaths_n_5fac2a51c5b6ed84597d822b
Un-fucking-believable, the news today. A disaster with Trump's and his followers' names written all over it. Deplorable is too kind a term.
I know you are not talking about it, but you answered a post that was talking about Wall Street with local food banks and unemployment. I am saying they are two different issues. The issues raised by the other poster was about Wall Street and your comment was about local businesses and unemployed. i was saying the point about Wall Street and stock market seeing this as a blip is correct. U.S. economy is not just Amazon. Granted they are increasing their hiring, adding more drivers, allowing many retail outlets to run storefronts on AMAZON, spurring places like Wegman's, Giant and Harris Teeter to also add delivery of items and hiring there as well etc... But don't forget about COSTCO, WALMART, TARGET, etc... all seeing growth in traffic and sales as we head into holiday season. Space on container ships from Asia into USA and South America is almost non-existent as imports have surged since the summer? All trans pacific carriers are experiencing huge demand surges and space on ships will be tight well into February. This is something you need to have knowledge and experience to dig deeper and see where the value is with respect to investing. It is not just Amazon that is a narrow view of the economy. Groceries, trucking companies, packaging companies, food product companies, etc... there are large segments of the market that are coming back in large surges as they adapt to this short term change in how business is done. The question raised was about Wall Street and my point is that the global economy is starting to fire up again and logistics is way behind in dealing with it causing some backlogs which keeps fueling demand. It ain't just Amazon. Look deeper into the stock market to see which sectors have seen increases. Manufacturing in the past 2 months has almost doubled since the summer in many sectors around the world and many of this can be reflected in the stock market.
Just so there is no confusion, this is the exchange I am referring to: GWB is right, the stock market is reflecting the bigger economic picture and COVID will be a blip despite those left behind locally in small businesses and unemployed. But the stock market does not include small businesses privately owned and local unemployment. Wall Street firms are correct in their assessment and only those who have deep experience there can see the opportunities in the U.S. and abroad with foreign stocks listed in U.S.