It seems to me that the Wuhan Flu is doing more of a culling process (normally done by other viruses) than anything else. It is primarily the weak and infirm who are dying from it. Here’s a quote from a recent article (with emphasis added) that supports that position:
If the modelers and the responsible government bodies had looked at the basic numbers instead of elaborating an apparently sophisticated model, they would have noticed that there has been no noticeable rise of the death rate. A look at the overall death statistics shows flat lines with fluctuations within its natural range. Even in Italy, there has not yet been a higher number of deaths than usual in the past couple of months. In absolute numbers, the death count is actually slightly down because of the seasonal factor that wintertime is over.
Don’t get sucked in by looking at this phony crisis the way the alarmists want to frame it.
Monday, stocks rose 3.3% in Asia, 3.6% in Europe, and 6.4% in the U.S. on massive volume. The VXO fell 16% to close at 44.84. The 10-Year U.S. Treasury bond yield rose 15% to close at 0.68. Precious metals gained 2% and their miners gained three times that amount. The Dow, S&P 500, and NYSE indices captured 22,000, 2,600, and 10,000 benchmarks respectively. Apple closed above 260 and IBM retook the 110 benchmark.
Tuesday, stocks rose 2.1% in Asia, 1.7% in Europe, and slightly in the U.S. on massive volume. The VXO gained 10% to close at 49.43. Apple closed below its 260 benchmark.
Wednesday, stocks in Asia fell 0.3%, fell sightly in Europe but gained 3.5% in the U.S. on extremely high volume. The 10-Year U.S. Treasury bond yield rose 4% to close at 0.76. The Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 indices closed to recapture their 23,000, 8,000, and 2,700 benchmarks respectively.
Thursday, stocks gained 1.4% in Asia and Europe while gaining 2.2% in the U.S. on mammoth volume. The 10-Year U.S. Treasury bond yield fell 5% to close at 0.73. Precious metals gained 2% while their miners gained five times that amount. The NYSE closed above 11,000. IBM moved above the 120 benchmark. Unable to restrain themselves the Federal Reserve took action to create even greater moral hazard.
Friday, markets were closed for Good Friday. Speaking of moral hazard, at least one person has written about the way things in a free economy are supposed to work. He says to let the weak companies fail. For the weak, stocks gained about 12%.