Posted on 02/25/2020 11:33:06 AM PST by Zhang Fei
The COVID-19 illness has not become a global pandemic, according to the World Health Organization, but it’s starting to act like an economic one. And the financial costs are mounting.
Near-panic over a spreading coronavirus sheared more than 1,000 points off the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -3.12% on Monday, with more and more companies having followed in Apple’s AAPL, -2.78% footsteps by warning of lower sales and supply disruptions that could cause even more damage in the next few months.
Just a few weeks ago, most economic forecasters were predicting a small impact from the viral outbreak in China. Since then the virus has made its way to South Korea, Italy and other countries, raising the prospect that it will spread worldwide.
The U.S. economy has been shielded from direct impacts of the virus, but the side effects are becoming more evident each day. Declining travel. Fewer foreign tourists. Supply bottlenecks for automobile makers and tech companies. The closure in China of popular American retail chain stores such as Starbucks SBUX, -3.01% and McDonald’s MCD, -0.65% . And so on.
Goldman Sachs on Monday raised its estimate of the economic damage to the U.S. for the third time in as many weeks. The bank now predicts the virus will shave eight-tenths of a percentage point from U.S. growth in the first quarter — double its original estimate. That’s a fairly big chunk of growth.
The truth, of course, is that no one really knows how much the disease will cost, especially if most countries that encounter the virus take the same steps as China in quarantining millions of people and shutting down large parts of their economies. The globe hasn’t suffered from a true pandemic since the Spanish flu in 1918 swept the world and killed up to an
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
DJIA down +800 since the open and no signs of stopping before the close.
You get paid to stay away from people?
I once read a sci-fi book where this guy was cursed to have it always rain on him. He figured out how to monetize it by getting resorts to pay him to stay away.
Unbelievable. It seems like many are rooting for this to become a crisis. It is not.
Pfffttttt! That’s nothing compared to gun deaths according to nannie bloomers.
These Coronavirus Groupies willfully ignore the stats you’ve so kindly provided. It doesn’t push their hysterical, doom and gloom narrative!
The verbal gymnastics and conjecture they use to push this bull sh*t as a pandemic is a sight to behold!
That’s a good, and true to live, observation.
I get paid to stay away from people.
Wall Street seems convinced it is.
So much of the profits from our corporations rely on cheap labor overseas. Stock holders know this. And the Coronavirus will affect those areas.
KooK, I hear the Carona Princes cruise line is running a discounted cruise to Italy. Why not book it and help the economy?
I think you are right. Never let a crisis go to waste. The more the chaos, the more it’s blame Trump. Be peacefully prepared.
Yes, viral lab and a wet market.
Plant story.
“I stay away from people as a habit,...”
I’m like you. I love solitude and avoid crowds and traffic as much as possible. I get up at 3:45 each morning, have my coffee, walk at 5:a.m. approx 2-3 miles daily and do food shopping at 6 or 7 a.m. when the stores are empty.
grow up idiots.
SARS Pandemic
Bird Flu Pandemic
Swine Flu Pandemic
Good grief...
I want your job...
The Markets were frothy anyway and this was as good a reason as any to lock in profits and plow cash back in when valuations are reasonable.
Does anyone know if the annual flu considered a pandemic?
The heightened concern is based on new cases that can’t be traced to Wuhan.
Better safe than sorry. Nobody can be sure how bad it will get. But seasonally virus activity in the US usually subsides in 2 months.
If we don’t have a major outbreak in the US, Trump should get a nice boost for his handling of the crisis.
The media hysterics are making this virus seem like the black plague.
It’s not
“....this was a Deep State October surprise that got out a little early!...”
The evils SOBs have tried everything to bring the POTUS down: 24/7/365 negative media bombardment, Mueller’s fiasco, the impeachment fiasco, etc. They’re now reached the point where they’re so desperate that they’re resorted to actually killing people and bringing down the whole economy in their final effort to bring down the POTUS before November with this virus crap. I would put NOTHING, I mean absolutely NOTHING, past these evil POSs.
Let me just put on my tin-foil hat for a minute. It would NOT surprise me in the least IF it came out that this was secretly engineered right here in the good ole USA and was either deliberately sold to, or allowed to be stolen by a Chinese agent knowing full well that they did not have the proper protocols in place to handle it. IF so, these POSs need to be hunted down, arrested, tried, convicted and publicly hanged on national TV.....better yet, just shoot the miserable bassturds while they were trying to escape.
hmmm..who is most often..possibly always “the sky is falling” people?
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