Friends
As more and more cancellations and shut downs occur, there were some positive developments today. First, the Federal Reserve continues to fight this battle on the front lines, today adding support to the commercial paper market by opening a funding facility to support the financing needs of companies facing stress amid the virus outbreak. Once again, the Fed is using all of its powers at this time to supply liquidity and to keep the credit market working. It’s been a challenge, but they seem determined to do so.
On the medical front we did get a lot of news this morning about companies who are developing treatments and vaccines. Our biotech and pharmaceutical industries are doing amazing work and at an incredibly fast pace. We need them to succeed. Fingers crossed.
After more wild gyrations, stocks did recover just a bit today(a 1000 point Dow move to the upside is “just a bit” these days, isn’t it), but I would suspect it’s another counter trend rally (dead cat bounce). It’s hard to imagine stocks repairing the damage that we have seen any time real soon. But, at least it’s good to see that stocks can go up still, after a few of the days we have seen lately, we were starting to wonder.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1049 points to finish the day at 21,237. The S&P 500 was up 142 points to close at 2,529. Gold was up $50 to trade at $1,537 per ounce, while oil was down $1.74 to trade at $26.96 per barrel WTI.
It’s going to be a day to day struggle for a while, as virus cases are sure to continue to increase on a daily basis, but at least we can take comfort in the fact that the Federal Reserve has delivered the monetary response that we needed. Now, we wait for the fiscal response.
Have a nice evening everyone.
