Dear Reader,
By now, you've probably seen the headlines. The markets are beginning to sell-off.
During the shortened trading day on Friday, the Dow logged its worst performance since October 2020, falling 905 points, or 2.5%.
A lot of the early chatter and news around the market plunge is related to the emergence of a new coronavirus variant.
This rationale seems to check out, as Covid Sensitive stocks (like travel and hospitality) appeared to take the biggest hit on Friday. Stocks that have historically benefitted from the pandemic (Pfizer, Moderna, and Clorox) all seemed to end the trading day on a positive note.
The effect that this new coronavirus variant will have on the Country, economy, and the stock market is still unknown. With that said, there are plenty of reasons why it is too early to consider reducing your stock exposure.
Keith Lerner, Chief market strategist for Trust Advisory Services, highlighted the following points in a recent letter about this topic.
- COVID Variants are most likely here to stay and will continue to inject volatility in the market over the next year(s).
- This isn't the first time the market has faced a COVID variant. Both consumers and corporations are better equipped than ever before to handle the issues that the pandemic presents.
- If this strand becomes problematic for the economy, we could see central banks quickly revoke plans to tighten fiscal policies.
We've talked about it in previous emails, but for investors, it's historically been a wrong move to bet against corporate America's ability to adapt and overcome.
If we think back almost two years ago, everyone was essentially blindsided by the pandemic and subsequent "lockdown" in 2020.
And yet, the economy still was able to emerge just as strong as ever in the span of a year.
All this is to say, don't be surprised if the selling gets worse before it gets better. Unfortunately, this is par for the course when you get involved with stocks.
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