Thursday, December 3, 2020

Notes From All Over -- The Mid-Day Market Edition -- December 3, 2020

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site.  Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. 

NASDAQ: hits another record.

Dow: back over 30,000 as Boeing surges with news on the 737 Max. Some suggest Boeing needs to refer to this "new" aircraft as the "737." It will be interesting whether the public (mainstream media) keeps the "Max" moniker.

Of the Dow components, along with Boeing, Walgreens is up almost 8%. I assume this is based on foot-traffic generated by folks streaming in to get their (in many cases) free Covid-19 vaccination. And not just once in most cases, but twice. And then a third and fourth time to buy Tylenol (JNJ) to treat the side effects of the vaccination. For many, this has been the easiest stock-picking environment we have had in years:

  • end of Chinese flu;
  • new administration advocating for multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure bill;
  • Boeing gets great news;
  • pharmaceutical companies and "vaccine-delivery" locations (see below);
  • Jim Cramer's "pent-up demand bull market" + the annual Santa Claus rally

The biggest unknown: energy. But one good omen: CVX price action today.

From Motley Fool today:

Under the plan, people will be able to get inoculated against the coronavirus at pharmacies such as CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, as well as other retailers with pharmacy operations such as Costco, Kroger, and Walmart.

Will some of these "vaccine-delivery" locations set up kiosks outside, especially high-volume big box stores like Costco and Walmart? Might we see those "containerized housing units"? This could be the largest mass immunization in the history of mankind? I can't imagine these stores with long lines of people snaking among their aisles while trying to maintain normal operations.

Perhaps this would be a good time to study how China executed their mass immunization policy -- not how they prioritized who got the vaccine, but "in the trenches," how did they manage large groups of people descending on vaccination centers. 

Obviously immunizing residents in nursing homes and prisons will not be an issue in the same sense. Or even immunizing nurses and other first responders. But once released to the general public this could be quite a spectacle. 

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Whoo-Hoo!

Sophia has jumped to Level 4 -- Spanish -- Duolingo. This is the fastest she has jumped from one level to the next level!

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