Failed Democratic presidential hopeful and failed Democratic senator from Texas Beto O’Rourke, announced at a Biden rally in Texas, that he would support and vote for Joe Biden for president. In exchange for that, Biden seemed to promise O’Rourke that he would become the gun confiscation czar for the United States if Biden won the presidency. O’Rourke previously had promised he would seize all Americans AR15 assault rifles. “Hell yes we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47” he said at a Democratic primary debate last year. After O’Rourke announced to the crowd that he would vote for Biden, Joe took the microphone and said “I want to make something clear, I’m gonna guarantee you this is not the last time you’re seeing this guy! You’re going to take care of the gun problem with me, you’re going to be the one who leads this effort. I’m counting on you I’m counting on you we need you badly.” That kind of talk is exactly why we don’t need Joe Biden, And I have no idea how they think this helps him in Texas.
Healthcare Stocks
As of this writing, all the results are not in from the Super Tuesday voting, but Joe Biden is doing much better than Bernie Sanders expected Joe Biden to do. Joe won North Carolina which has 110 delegates. He won Virginia which has 99 delegates, Massachusetts which has 91 (sorry Elizabeth Warren), Minnesota which has 75 delegates, and Tennessee which has 64. Bernie did win California, which holds a whopping 464 delegates and as I write this, he’s leading in Texas which represents 268, but this breathes life into Joe Biden’s campaign, which should breathe a little life into health care stocks. The health care sector has not only been hit by the weight of the overall market falling, but also by the potential of Bernie Sanders and his Medicare for all plan. If Joe Biden takes the lead in delegates and wins the nomination, it’s safe to buy the health care sector again.
Hulu Continues to Sign
Hulu, the streaming service owned by the Walt Disney Corporation (NYSE:DIS) Is now the exclusive content home for FX. More than 40 of FX series including NIP/Tuck, Justified, Damages and Rescue Me Are now available on the Hulu platform with new content on the way. Disney stock has gotten killed along with the rest of the market, because the coronavirus will hit the source of 45% of their revenues, attendance at the theme parks. But other streaming services like Roku Inc (NASDAQ:ROKU)have also gotten crushed. Hulu has some very strong names playing through it already including two of my favourites : Seinfeld and Family Guy. Disney is going to be one of my favorite stocks on the way back up, and Hulu continues to sign deals that make it a valuable component of their three headed streaming service, that includes Disney, and ESPN Sports.
COVID-19 Death Toll Up in the US.
Three more deaths bring the total of coronavirus fatalities to 9 in the United States. The president and his administration along with health officials seem calm but stern in terms of warnings that they’re giving the public. Robert Redfield who’s the director of the CDC said in a message to the American public, “I want them to be prepared for the reality that there are going to be more cases in the community but I want them to continue to live their daily lives. I want them to be mindful of the opportunity again to prepare themselves and their families “. Scientists have no way to predict the future spread. Redfield gave some frightening perspective when he said “when you think that just a couple of weeks ago there were less than three cases in Korea now there’s 2500”. Shelves are starting to empty out at grocery stores as people prepare to stay inside, but that seems a little bit extreme at this point. one man who caught the coronavirus and recovered said in an interview that it wasn’t that bad. He said the regular flu was much harder, and had he not been diagnosed, he would’ve gone to work with these symptoms. That’s probably the scariest thing about this virus. It’s not that bad, until it kills you.
Fed Cut Hurts Markets
The United States Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) cut their benchmark interest rate by a very unusual 50 basis points in a very unusual mid-meeting move. Realistically calling it a mid-meeting move is kind of silly considering that their scheduled meeting was next week, which is probably why stocks ended up lower when they got the rate cut, they were hoping for. Stocks initially rallied, but then fell hard with the NASDAQ ending down 3.1%, the Dow Jones industrial average ending down 2.9%, and the S&P 500 ending down 2.8%. Basically, the strange timing of this cut made it look like the Fed knows something that the markets don’t. They have only surprised the markets with 50 basis points of cuts three times in the last 25 years and all three were preceding a crisis. It doesn’t make sense that waiting one extra week Would cause that much more damage to the underlying economy and that’s really the basis for the conspiracy theorists. Maybe there will be a nonfarm payroll miss or maybe they really do have a crystal ball, but I doubt they saw the selloff happening immediately after they announced the rate cut that the market was looking for.