The Wuhan coronavirus continued to spook the markets. Today is the 5th trading session since the virus was confirmed in the USA. The S&P 500 was down over 1.5% today and nearly 2.6% since the virus was detected in the USA.
How does this compare with past viral hysteria? The Ebola outbreak of September 2014 took 12 days for the S&P 500 to bottom and it dropped 5.8%. (see chart) Prior to that panic the market had already been in decline for over a week.
What’s important to understand is that fear frenzies are usually shorted lived. Therefore, I took today’s volatility as an opportunity to buy, because overall I think the market has been very resilient. In addition to adding to some core holdings, I also made the following new purchases:
- FCX Freeport McMoRan
- ISRG Intuitive Surgical
- MU Micron
- NVDA Nvidia
- SBUX Starbucks
- UNH UnitedHealth
- XLB Materials ETF
- YUMC Yum Brands China
Most of these prices are back to December or November levels. I love to buy when things are on sale. Can prices go lower? Absolutely. To paraphrase Billy Joel…”I might be WRONG, I might be RIGHT, I might be CRAZY!”
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