Kingsmill’s Investment Miscellanea: Friday, May 8, 2020

May 08, 2020 | Joshua Kingsmill


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Key Takeaways:

  • Health concerns balanced with the need to move on
  • The relationship between new cases, the Economy and the market: not all trending in the same direction
  • How much should we rely on the accuracy of surveys: even on Mother’s Day?

We are all are having fatigue from the many weeks of this quarantine. When is it going to end, or at least ease up? Indeed, there are announcements and plans for measures to lift or ease restrictions. Strategies are discussed to increase all of our freedoms. As we balance health concerns with the need as humans to move on with life, there are some promising signs.

I found this chart helpful as a big picture relationship between the Virus, the Economy, and the Stock market.  In a few weeks, I will re-post, and we would imagine more in the “Blue.”  What’s interesting currently is that while the Real Economy continues to get worse, as the number of cases increases, the financial markets are improving.

Big Picture Relationship between the Virus, the Economy, and the Stock Market

This survey below gave me a chuckle, and delightful for Mother’s Day: How can those in the same household see things so differently? 45% of Dad’s surveyed felt they were spending more time home-schooling with their children during this quarantine period. Only 3% of Mother’s thought that Dad was stepping up. Not sure what the takeaway is from this is, but let’s just hope there are some of what pollsters deem: “margin of error due to sample size.”

Who is spending more time home-schooling your children or helping them with distance learning?

Mothers, of course, are extraordinary (and probably more accurate when it comes to reporting who does more of the home-schooling, let’s be honest). This weekend’s Mother’s Day will undoubtedly present many challenges. As much as things have changed this year, and the celebrations will be different, Mother’s Day spending expected to reach $26.7 billion this year, up from $25 billion last year in the U.S.: another good sign that things are looking up, the first of many “better’s”: Happy Mother’s Day!