Monday, April 27, 2009

A 'Sick' Market

I was flipping channels earlier and found CNBC. Usually I have a love/hate relationship with them, seeing as how they are super-capitalist, overly conservative, and generally against what is best for everyone in favor of what is best for an investor or businessperson. But they are a business-focused channel and all of their pundits and anchors are conservative capitalists, so should I really be surprised that they're frightened to the bone about socialism or 'sharing the wealth.' Politics, as always. Anyway, their top story today was why the stock market will open lower, and they provided a single cause and reason for the huge market drop: The Swine Flu.

So I took some time to mull it over and it really doesn't make as much sense to me as the anchors said it should to investors. Cruise and air line stocks are down, as well as a bunch of technology stocks including Yahoo and Apple. They're flat as many people believe that technology, including iPhones and a Yahoo conference set to happen in southern California this week, will shrink in the coming weeks because people will be less apt to engage in face-to-face meetings and conferences and will stay away from Apple stores, where one of the outbreaks hit in the US. Is it fair? Absolutely not, in my opinion, but I suppose it makes a tiny bit of sense.

Oil prices were down. A lot. Essentially because people will go fewer places if everywhere else is perceived to be the pandemic epicenter.

Silver is up, apparently because its major exporters happen to be countries not affected by The Swine Flu. Huh?

The stocks that are up: vaccine makers, rite aid, hospitals, medical supply companies, etc.--all of which make sense.

Now for what really makes no sense whatsoever: GM is up, because it will lay of 23,000 people and will cut Pontiac out, making it the first brand to be eradicated because of choice, not demand. But it's not up as high as it should be, according to a lot of the pundits, mainly because people are frightened to go into car dealerships because it could get them infected....

So does it all make sense to you? Does it register as well-thought-out and logical, as correct and well-informed? To me it seems very illogical, impulsive and helter-skelter. I agree certain stocks should rise higher than others, but there's no reason that stocks should take hits because of it, aside from perhaps hotel and airline stocks. But cruise lines is pushing it. And Yahoo and Apple? That's just a bit capricious to me.

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