The stock market got crushed last week. Then, just as quickly as the panic arrived, it left…
This week, stocks have been rebounding with a fervor, and just three days into the trading week, the S&P 500 has basically already recovered all of its losses since the omicron variant emerged on Thanksgiving and caused the worst Black Friday performance in Wall Street’s history.
To some, the velocity and magnitude of this week’s stock market rebound has been surprising. But to us, what was far more surprising was the velocity and magnitude of last week’s sell-off.
The frank reality, folks, is that stocks shouldn’t have dropped last week.
The two big headwinds weighing on markets were the emergence of the omicron variant of Covid-19, and hawkish commentary from Fed Board Chair Jerome Powell at a pair of Senate hearings.
Both headwinds were overblown by the mainstream media.
Early data out of South Africa suggested very early on that while the omicron variant was more contagious than previous variants of Covid-19, it’s also proving to be less severe which results in milder symptoms. Within a few days of Thanksgiving, multiple health officials out of South Africa echoed that this was the case.
Dr. Angelique Coetzee, the chair of the South African Medical Association, told Reuters way back on Nov. 18 that her patients with omicron had “very mild” symptoms.
Yet, that news didn’t get much coverage.
What did get coverage, however, was a Financial Times interview with Moderna’s CEO who said that current vaccines were unlikely to work against omicron and that this situation could get really ugly. The following day, stocks plunged – and Moderna’s stock soared.
But, as more data has rolled in and more public health experts have spoken on the issue, it turns out that those early observations out of South Africa were prescient. Omicron is little more than a more-contagious, less-severe mutation of Covid-19 that can be treated largely with our current vaccines.
Stocks have rebounded on this news. But those who listened to the fear-mongering headlines of last week were selling stocks at bargain levels.
Lather, rinse, and repeat for headlines surrounding Powell’s speeches last week at a pair of Senate hearings.
All of those headlines were talking about how Powell has become a super hawk, saying that we should all retire the word “transitory” when talking about inflation and that the Fed will use all of the tools at its disposal to fight inflation.
Sure, he said those things. But context matters. Right after saying that he should retire the word “transitory,” he went on to say that he still sees inflation subduing in the back half of next year.
But that part got left out of out most headlines and stories talking about Powell’s comments because… well, because it’s less catchy. Which headline are you going to click more? “Fed Chair Still Sees Inflation Cooling Off”? Or “Fed Chair Admits He Was Wrong”?
And that’s the bigger point here. Headlines oftentimes drive stock prices, and those headlines oftentimes have a negative bias, because fear gets clicks.
I’m sick of it. I’m sick of retail investors getting fooled by fear-mongering headlines into selling stocks, when instead, they should be buying them. Had you done that last week, you’d be up big this week.
But I’m not alone. My colleagues Eric Fry – a legendary stock picker with dozens of 1,000% winners – and Louis Navellier – an investing icon who Forbes called the “king of quants” – are sick and tired of fear-mongering headlines, too.
So, last night, we all sat down at The Early Warning Summit to talk about the real story underlying today’s stock market – and the real reason why stocks are going to go higher (not lower) in 2022.
Best of all, at the end of that summit, we offered folks the opportunity to be among the first people in the world to see our top eight stocks to buy for 2022 – stocks that we each feel have monstrous upside potential over the next 12 months.
So, if you’re tired of being jerked around by the fear-mongering mainstream media, and instead just want to make money in the stock market, then I highly suggest you click here and watch a replay of that special summit.
On the date of publication, Luke Lango did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.