Displaying items by tag: wfh

(Houston)

The onset of the pandemic had weak demand for about every good in the U.S. except…See the full story on our partner Magnifi’s site.

(New York)

Here is a confusing idea: workers are headed back to the office after a year away, but this is exactly the time to stay away from office REITs. One line of reasoning is that buying office REITs now, while prices are depressed, means there will be plenty of upside. However, the issue is that many companies are planning on keeping workers remote indefinitely, as remote work has gone much better than expected, according to many surveys. Office REIT bulls admit that may be the case, but counter than because of the pandemic, employers will want more square footage of office space to allow for more space between workers, helping offset the loss of total workers in the office. Critics say vaccines are working well so extra space will not be needed.

FINSUM: Buying into office REITs now is highly risky strategy, but one that could have major upside if the office market returns strongly.

(New York)

Okay maybe it’s not a “boom” but it is certainly a “boomlet”. Alongside all the uncertainty in markets surrounding the election, value stocks have been having a moment in the sun. The reason why is interesting and seems to be two-part: one aspect is idiosyncratic, the other more macro. On the idiosyncratic front, many bank employees tend to get very conservative with their investments at this time of year because many financial companies end their fiscal year’s before December 31st. What those employees do is sell their winners and buy beaten up value stocks. It happens every year, but the effect might be bigger this year because tech stocks have gained so much. On the macro front, one big thing helping value stocks is that the COVID vaccine has given hope to “normal” economy companies. Those stocks have done very poorly this year, so are squarely in the “value” category.

FINSUM: If a vaccine is widely available soon—and people actually take it—a return to some version of the pre-COVID economy is seems likely. That said, things will have changed and there will be some stocks that continue to struggle. Choose wisely.

(New York)

The market has been turned on its head. For the last nine months there has been a clear delineation in the market: stocks that benefit from work-from-home and other social distancing measures thrive, and those shares which did well in the “old” economy struggle. Yesterday, that got turned upside. The market surged on the most legitimate and detailed announcement of vaccine success yet, and that sparked a reversal of fortune for WFH stocks. Despite the Dow rallying almost 5%, the Nasdaq fell well over 1%, showing the strong divergence in shares. Stocks like Boeing, Raytheon, GE, American Airlines, and Delta Airlines rocketed, often jumping by 15% or more. The cruise lines were up by as such as 40%! But the big winners of the year—like Zoom—fell big-time, with Zoom’s shares down 17%.

FINSUM: If you were short the COVID-economy yesterday you did very well. The thing is, this market seems to be getting a little ahead of itself because of the fairly long timeline for approval and distribution of the vaccine.