What we’re reading (10/19)
“Coronavirus Tanked The Economy. Then Credit Scores Went Up.” (Wall Street Journal). “Millions of Americans lost their jobs and skipped debt payments this year. You wouldn’t know it looking at consumer credit scores. While the coronavirus was pummeling the U.S. economy, Americans’ credit scores—a metric used in nearly every consumer-lending decision—were rising. The average FICO credit score stood at 711 in July, up from 708 in April and 706 a year earlier, according to Fair Isaac Corp.”
“CVS To Hire Thousands Of Pharmacy Techs As It Prepares For More COVID-19 Cases, Rollout Of Vaccine” (CNBC). “CVS Health said Monday that it wants to immediately hire 15,000 employees to prepare for an expected rise in Covid-19 and flu cases this fall and winter. More than 10,000 of those will be full-time and part-time licensed pharmacy technicians who can help dispense medications and administer Covid-19 tests.”
“Lockdowns In Europe Are A Warning To The United States” (CNN Business). “The coronavirus is surging again in Europe, forcing harsh new restrictions in London and Paris as governments carefully weigh their next steps. That's bad news for the region's economic recovery — and puts the United States on notice ahead of a difficult winter.”
“For Long-Term Investors, Small Things Like Presidential Elections Don’t Matter” (New York Times). “In a year of serial crises, solace for many people has come from an unlikely source: the stock market. Despite periodic jitters and a horrendous downturn earlier in the year, the stock market has been a surprisingly sturdy refuge. Though there is heartbreak almost everywhere else you look, most of the time stocks rise anyway. Through Friday, the S&P 500, a benchmark for the shares of big American companies, was up almost 8 percent this year. And this stock market prosperity in a time of general desperation isn’t an outlier. With important exceptions, the stock market has generated rich returns for decades, regardless of the outcome of portentous events, including presidential elections.”
“The Smart Money Just Reversed Bets Against Tech Stocks In A Huge Way” (MarketWatch). “The 33rd anniversary of the “Black Monday” stock-market meltdown is upon us, and if hedge-fund managers are scared of history repeating itself, you certainly wouldn’t know it from the massive overhaul in their positions they’ve undertaken over the past week…After establishing one of their biggest short positions in U.S. tech stocks in more than a decade earlier this month, hedge-fund managers poured their money into Nasdaq futures at a near-record rate, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission data cited by Bloomberg.”
