The Big Q: Is the worst behind the stock market after a coronavirus-induced selloff?
The Big A: We do not know for sure as officials attempt to restart economies from a self-imposed period of hibernation to curb the spread of the virus, but a chart pairing the infections of the COVID-19 chaos by growth rate and 1 of Wall Street’s closely followed indicators of volatility implies that measures of both the public-health crisis and market volatility looks to have marked their highs, a potentially good sign for stock-market Bulls.
The chart is by Torsten Sløk, chief international economist at Deutsche Bank Securities, (NYSE:DB) shows that the Cboe Volatility Index VIX, +0.84%, also known by its ticker symbol VIX, marked its Top on 16 March at 82.69, surpassing its high of 80 during Y 2008 financial crisis.
The VIX is based on options contracts in the coming 30-days pegged to the S&P 500, and tends to rise when stocks are falling and decline as markets rise. It is seen by technical analysts as a gauge of market expectations for the coming month and tends to be used as a hedge against the prospect of declines in the stock market, because assets tend to fall faster than they rise.
Mr. Sløk’s chart illustrates that 1 measure, the number of countries with a growth rate of infections of COVID-19 that are higher than 5% signals that the coronavirus that has infected more than 3-M people worldwide may have reached a peak in late March to early April (see the chart):
Far from being the last word, the graphic of the VIX and global infection rates from the coronavirus may provide some comfort to countries still confronting with the disease.
Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, aka Dr. Doom, an infectious disease expert was relatively optimistic about the outlook of the virus. He said he is “cautiously optimistic” that a vaccine to stop the coronavirus will be known “by this coming Winter.”
Playing the VIX as Small, Mid Caps Outperform
Have a healthy day, Keep the Faith!