That's what I thought too, and I figured the debt downgrades would exacerbate the downturn. So what am I missing in the current market? I anticipated expectations for a stimulus to push the market higher last week. What is the market anticipating right now, a quick return to normalcy? People don't spend when they are worried, even if they are collecting unemployment.
I think you're seeing a short term bump in sentiment. Look at all the things that have happened in the past few days. Italy's numbers are finally coming down; Our own government is talking about ways to send people back to work, and the federal government just issued a 2T stimulus package (the largest in history). Add to that the market just had the quickest and most rapid sell-off in history.
There was bound to be a relief rally.
Here's what's not captured in the rally the past few days. We haven't even begun to understand the economic impact of this shutdown. We just saw last week's unemployment numbers before the $%^& really hit the fan. More and more people (including office personnel) are going to be laid off in the next couple weeks. That is going to drag on everyone's sentiment.
We are going to start hearing rumors of bankruptcies as companies that depend on consumers for cash have evaporating balance sheets (retail, airlines, automotive, food service). After that the cash flow is going to make its way down the supply stream as the manufacturers as companies on net 30, net 60 or net 90 start failing to make payments (clothing manufacturers, oil and gas distribution, secondary and tertiary automotive suppliers, food packaging, retail food distribution).
We are only at the beginning stage of this recession, and I have a feeling it's going to be pretty painful. The best case scenario is that the US is somehow insulated from how this spreads in Europe because we all drive in cars and live farther apart. In that case, maybe we are out of this in 4 weeks. More realistically, I think we follow the trend of Italy and we have to shut down for at least 6-8 weeks.
And what happens after that? Does everyone bust out of their doors and rush back to their jobs that fired them only two months ago? Not likely.....the spigot will slowly turn on as companies try to gain some sense of normalcy after the biggest economic pause ever.
Then of course, we might have flare ups in the fall......