Friends
Sure, there is plenty of bad news, with all the business closings etc., but for a moment let’s see if we can find something good to take from today’s proceedings. First of all, the President’s press conference this afternoon was encouraging. We have some great people working around the clock to help the American people, and the President does appear to be focused on defeating the virus. When asked about the stock market, the President correctly said that we need to get the virus under control, then the stock market will take care of itself. I’ve been saying this for weeks. Yes, we need the Fed to step up, and they are doing their part. Now Congress has to come through with fiscal stimulus, and it appears that they are getting along well enough to come together for the American people. But, until we get good news on the virus, the markets are likely to struggle.
Stocks were down today, but I guess the good news there is that after the initial downdraft at the open, stocks steadied for most of the rest of the session. Unfortunately, we did lose some ground at the close. For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2997 points to finish the day at 20,188. The S&P 500 was down 324 points to close at 2,386. Gold was down $19 to trade at $1,497 per ounce, while oil was down $2.99 to trade at $28.74 per barrel WTI.
Again, stocks continue to get sold, but the things that the Fed are doing and Congress will do, will be helpful. To sell stocks now would be acknowledging that we will never recover from this. That’s not saying that things can’t get worse, on the contrary we have been concerned for months about things getting worse. But, if you believe that the U. S. is not done and that we will get past this at some point, then owning great American companies will be rewarding.
Let’s try to take this one day at a time.
Try to have a nice evening everyone.
Jim
