A friend sent me a silver lining late yesterday afternoon. He noted that the stock market has rewarded some companies and industries during the pandemic, and he particularly called attention to the uptick in Intel. It’s up 6.5% just during the regular trading hours late last week—based on first-quarter revenue and “profit above expectations”.
It’s not hard to see where computer-related technology has been positively impacted by the global change to doing everything online… and investors are undoubtedly pleased as well.
Amazon is up 80% for the 2020. Netflix has seen incredible growth, adding 37 million paid memberships in 2020, achieving $25 billion in annual revenue—a 24% increase year-over-year. (Thank you, Yahoo Finance for those quick statistics.)
A quick Google search shows in-depth analysis done by experts far more qualified than me. They marvel at the speed at which America’s stock market fell—and rose again.
In an article from CNBC’s website, they quote Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors. “One of the things that the pandemic has underscored more than anything else is that the stock market is a forward-looking mechanism. That’s been the tagline all year long as investors continue to scratch their heads wondering why the stock market could perform so strongly while the economy, labor market and earnings face such challenges. It’s more about future expectations than current conditions.”
I find some sort of odd hope in this quote. Like my friend, I agree that specific stocks—and their owners—have found a silver lining in the way the market has reacted to the pandemic. Even more broadly, though, I like the idea that many people are willing to bet their money on a swift recovery and on a world that moves forward quickly—when we can finally say that COVID is over. That’s a silver lining I’m holding onto in these current dark days.
