This fickle stock market is lashing any brave souls left on Wall Street with bullish conviction.
As the spreading virus spurs a renewed Federal Reserve put, American stocks haven’t jumped around like this since the euro crisis of 2011. Ferocious reversals show a market torn between V-shaped economic recovery bets and recession angst.
Bulls look like geniuses one day, dumb the next.
Stocks kicked off the week surging on hopes of monetary action to cushion the blow from the virus. They slumped when it landed. They rallied when Congress authorized billions to fight the outbreak; they’re set to tank after California’s state of emergency due to the pathogen.
No wonder so many investors are sitting it all out.
Just ask Gregory Perdon, who’s looking for more policy action like fiscal stimulus.
“The next decision we have to make is whether we want to take a more bullish stance,” said the co-chief investment officer at Arbuthnot Latham & Co. Ltd. “That decision has not been made as of yet.”
The S&P 500 Index tumbled 2.8% on Tuesday when the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates by 50 basis points in the first emergency cut in a decade. The feeling was policy makers had panicked, or knew something investors didn’t about the impact of the virus.
“In order to get me to embrace risk again, I need something that’s unexpected,” Perdon added.
Congress passing a $7.8 billion emergency spending bill to fund the government’s response to the outbreak certainly seemed to qualify for many investors. American stocks surged by more than 4% for the second time in three days Wednesday.