And the coronavirus epidemic certainly qualifies as “bad stuff.” But unlike our daily car accident fatalities, viral epidemics do end eventually.We do not yet know how large the coronavirus epidemic could become before petering out. Many used the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic as their frame of reference, which served no one very well, says this week's guest on Master in Business, Jeremy Siegel, professor at the Wharton School of Business, adviser to Initially, investors were complacent, as were America's leaders, amid talk that the infection was just another version of the common flu. Instead, design a plan to purchase a specific selection of stocks over the span of a few weeks.Doing nothing is also an option. Quite the contrary. They are treacherous and unpredictable events.That said, investors can tiptoe into the water during moments like these to begin establishing new positions in compelling, long-term investment opportunities, or to add to existing positions.If I had to guess — and it would be just a guess — the coronavirus-inspired selloff will be fairly shallow and fairly brief.Although the coronavirus is a frightening global phenomenon, so are many contagious diseases.
You could simply buckle up and prepare to ride out the stock market volatility.In fact, “doing nothing” is one of the tactics I discuss in my new book, No one should buy or sell a single investment without reading this critical manual first.Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2020/03/the-stock-market-catches-a-virus-but-it-will-recover/.Financial Market Data powered by FinancialContent Services, Inc. All rights reserved. China’s Shanghai Composite Index did not bottom out until November 2003, but it made a spritely recovery as well.As the above chart shows, all the major stock markets were much higher on Feb. 10, 2004 than they were on Feb. 10, 2003 — the day the SARS virus first made headlines.And within four years after the SARS outbreak, the This time around, stock market history might not repeat itself exactly, but it will probably rhyme.Today’s coronavirus-inspired stock market panic is probably creating a buying opportunity that will reward investors over the ensuing year or two.To be clear, investors cannot afford to be cavalier about panic selloffs. The news at the time tends to …
The selloff produced a buying opportunity that would reward investors handsomely over the following four years.This week’s epidemic-triggered stock market drop is not identical to the downturn of 2003, but it could provide a similarly rewarding buying opportunity.The only good news about the coronavirus epidemic is that it appears to be less lethal than severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus. This makes the market recovery seem more rational than many believe.You can stream and download our full conversation, including the podcast extras, on Next week, we speak with Ron Carson, founder and chief executive officer of Cwn LLC, which manages $12 billion.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. By Wayne Duggan , Contributor June 19, 2020 By Wayne Duggan , Contributor June 19, 2020, at 4:10 p.m. But if past is prologue, the swooning global stock markets will recover their health fairly soon and resume moving higher. Assuming next year's earnings will look more like those of 2019 rather than 2020, the market should have fallen only 5% to 6%, not the 34% that marked the March low. The plunge in February and March was overdone based on the decline in earnings.