financial weather watch Archives - Page 4 of 24

Please mind the (COVID-19) gap

The Senate today agreed to a massive $2 trillion stimulus deal (roughly 10% of GDP) to combat the economic fallout from COVID-19. This is a bigger stimulus deal than the Great Recession. Here are some of the highlights:

What if we are all stuck at home for the next three months?

This week began my family's social distancing, work from home (#WFH), homeschooling experiment. If you're not already doing the same, odds are that you will be soon. Having completed the prerequisite reading (Social Distancing: This is Not a Snow Day,) my wife and I politely turned down invitations for play dates and get-togethers. We remain focused on doing our part toward flattening the curve. This means having three kids (four if you count me) at home with limited contact to the outside world. It's an adjustment for everyone. Whenever the kids start clashing, usually by late afternoon, we take a family walk around the block. On just day five, we find ourselves walking a lot!

Jobless claims just starting to skyrocket

Last week jobless claims rose to 281,000. With the fast moving COVID-19 eviscerating demand, this is just the initial blast off of jobless claims. For those expecting a V-shape bottom, it is just way too early to call. Bill Gates believes the virus shutdown can last 10 weeks. This is going to be incredible strain on businesses.

Fed tries to calm markets but instead triggers panic selling

The Fed Open Market Committee was set to meet this Tuesday and Wednesday and the market was expecting a 100bps rate cut to the emergency zero level. Instead, the Fed shocked the market with a Sunday rate cut of the expected 100bps and surprise announcement of a $700 billion bond buying program, aka Quantitative Easing 4. This certainly feels like a panic move by Chairman Jerome Powell and the Fed. A Sunday afternoon rate cut is unprecedented. The market didn't take it well with US futures opening limit down -5% and then stocks tumbled at the open to trigger a 15 minute pause in selling. What does it all mean for investors?

Coronavirus: Conference Call with Clients

This is a replay of our client conference call on March 12, 2020 to discuss coronavirus and potential investing implications.

Europe to surpass China with most active coronavirus cases

Back in January, I wrote a blog post when coronavirus, COVID-19, first appeared on the radar. There were just 600 cases and the Chinese government had already locked down Wuhan and neighboring cities. I was hopeful that with modern medicine and China's quick quarantine that the coronavirus could be contained. While the Chinese appear to have contained their cases, the rest of the world hasn't taken enough aggressive action to stop it in its tracks and now Western Europe is about to pass China in number of active cases! This is a frightening thought as only Italy has gone into lockdown and it did so at over 10k cases. The Europeans aren't taking enough action and this problem is spiraling out of control.