What we’re reading (12/5)
“Small-Cap Stocks Hit Hard by Covid-19 Omicron Variant” (Wall Street Journal). “The emergence of the Covid-19 Omicron variant has pummeled small-cap stocks. The Russell 2000 benchmark has dropped 7.4% since Thanksgiving, when the fast-spreading new variant made headlines. Last week, the index fell into a correction, declining more than 10% from its November record. The S&P 500 large-cap index, by comparison, has shed 3.5% since the variant news.”
“Market History Says Omicron Volatility Isn’t A Reason For Investors To Sell” (CNBC). “[T]here isn’t any instance across the 19 biggest VIX spikes of the past three decades after which stocks weren’t positive a majority of the time one month, three months, six months, and one year later. One month later, stocks were only up an average of 1%, but were positive 70% of the time, and the numbers get better with time.”
“Argentina’s Losing Streak In U.S. Court Alive And Well” (Dealbreaker). “[I]t’s no wonder [Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernandez de] Kirchner’s closest allies wanted the ability to do to recalcitrant American jurists what Argentina does with them, and equally little wonder Paul Singer refused to have anything to do with those restructured bonds. It’s probably a great surprise to all of those hedge funds who thought Argentina’s defaulting days were passed it.”
“The Las Vegas Strip’s Latest $4.3 Billion Crypto-Friendly Hotel Has $15,000-A-Night ‘Villas’ And ‘Palaces’ — See What It’s Like To Stay In One” (Insider). “Viva Las Vegas — in June, Resorts World Las Vegas, the Strip's first new casino resort in over a decade, officially opened its doors as the hospitality industry began its COVID-19 recovery…[b]ut unlike many of the Strip predecessors, Resorts World's amenities have a tech-friendly twist, such as the option to pay with cryptocurrency.”
“True Colors: 72 Hours Inside The Spend-Athon At Art Basel Miami Beach 2021” (Vanity Fair). “The city is right now experiencing a perfect storm of profligate check-signing. There’s been two years of wealth creation at the tippy top of the economic mountain, and at the same time the remote-working finance bros and metaverse-inhabiting tech tycoons have stampeded to tax-break-happy Florida, making this year’s Miami edition of Basel the Super Bowl of branding and the Oscars of luxury sales. The seemingly overnight creation of a $10 billion NFT market is already rivaling the art market as a whole.”
