In today\u2019s Steady\nInvestor, we look at key factors that we believe are currently impacting the\nmarket and what could be next for the markets such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jobs Numbers Remain\nDismal. Here\u2019s a Silver Lining \u2013 <\/strong>The U.S. economy is losing millions of\njobs, and the economic data painting the picture continues to worsen. We have\nwritten before that many of the job losses are furloughs (temporary lay-offs)\nas opposed to permanently shrinking the workforce. During a structural\nrecession (like the 2008 financial crisis), companies respond by restructuring\nthe workforce to deal with a potentially prolonged recession. In the current\nenvironment, employers appear to be keeping employees close by, in anticipation\nof the economy\u2019s reopening. A recent survey conducted by Morning Consult found\nthat two-thirds of workers believed that they would return to work for their\ncurrent employer, which could help restart business much more quickly than if\nthe employer had to rehire.1<\/sup> When employees are asked to return to work, there\u2019s no\nneed for training, recruitment, job search, background checks, \u2018onboarding,\u2019\netc., all of which are costly and time-consuming. Workers can return to their\njobs and immediately be productive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n _______________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n Download Our Dean\u2019s List of Investment Strategies!<\/a><\/strong> _______________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prices Remain Firm in\nthe U.S. Housing Market \u2013 <\/strong>U.S. housing prices have remained firm throughout\nthe economic downturn, and have even risen in many cases. Typically, rising\nhome prices would be a positive economic fundamental to consider within a broad\nset of economic metrics, but in this case, housing prices may be going up for\nthe wrong reasons. The median home price ticked 8% higher in March\n(year-over-year) to $280,600, even as buyer demand fell -8.5% from the previous month.4<\/sup> While falling\ndemand should put downward pressure on prices, the supply of homes is shrinking\nat an even faster pace \u2013 hence rising prices. For now, many sellers are holding\ntheir ground on prices, as they believe demand will return once buyers can\nactually get back out and tour homes. These sellers may not be able to hang on\nfor long at elevated prices if demand remains soft in light of the economic\nrecession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Countries and States\nMove Towards Re-Opening \u2013 <\/strong>The world appears to be pivoting in its response\nto the Covid-19 pandemic, slowly shifting away from stay-at-home orders and\ntowards economic reopening. Italy, one of the hardest hit European countries in\nterms of infections and deaths, on Monday allowed factories, construction\nsites, and wholesale commerce to open. Shops remain closed, but the government\nis targeting a date of May 18th to reopen many restaurants, and June 1st<\/sup>\nto reopen bars. In the U.S., some 30 states have started to allow businesses to\noperate or have made plans and set dates to do so. In Australia and New Zealand\n\u2013 two countries with success stories for containing the outbreak \u2013 plans are\nbeing drawn to allow travel between the two countries to help their respective\neconomies recover. Hong Kong has experienced two weeks of no new, locally\ntransmitted cases, and is starting to ease restrictions as well.5<\/sup> The\nroad to economic resurgence will be a long one, but the groundwork is being\nlaid now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How German Factories\nNavigated the Covid-19 Crisis \u2013 <\/strong>Around the world, economists, scientists,\nthought leaders, and politicians are all gathering data and forming new ideas\nfor how to best manage a pandemic, in terms of balancing economic considerations\nwith public health needs. Looking for country models and success stories is a\nuseful tool for doing so. Germany offers one such example, where more than 80%\nof factories remained open during the six-week national lockdown. Germany gave\nfactories the option of staying open during the lockdown, using social\ndistancing, face masks for all employees, in-house Covid-19 tests and contact\ntracing to manage the workforce and prevent an outbreak. Germany has fared similarly\nor better than many of its developed neighbors like Italy, Spain, France, and\nthe U.K. in terms of infections, but has far fewer deaths from the pandemic. Among\nthe early lessons learned from the German model: implementing strict safety\nrules early on, involving employees and unions in safety planning, and putting\nrobust testing and contact tracing systems in place on the local and state\nlevel (regional in Germany\u2019s case).6<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no way to\nknow exactly how this pandemic will continue to impact markets and economies around\nthe world, but finding the right investment strategy can make a huge difference\nwhen managing the highs and lows of the market. To help you learn more about\nstrategies that cater to different investment objectives, we have created our\nDean\u2019s List of Investment Strategies.7<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our Dean\u2019s List\ndescribes five of our investment strategies that are ranked in the top 8% of\ntheir respective classes, according to Morningstar (as of 3\/31\/20).8<\/sup>\nIf you have $500,000 or more to invest and want to learn more about these\nstrategies, click on the link below to see how they could potentially benefit\nyou.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Housing prices steady, how German factories stayed open, unemployed numbers may reverse quickly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-private-client-group","category-steady-investors-week"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8638"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10606,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8638\/revisions\/10606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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You can\u2019t predict how Covid-19 will continue to affect the economy or when the economy and market will bounce back. But the right investment strategy can make a huge difference in preparing your long-term investments for success and helping you navigate these challenging times.
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To help you learn more about strategies that cater to different investment objectives, we have created our Dean\u2019s List of Investment Strategies.\u00a0Our Dean\u2019s List describes five of our investment strategies that are ranked in the top 8% of their respective classes according to Morningstar<\/strong>\u00a0(as of 3\/31\/20).2<\/sup>
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If you have $500,000 or more to invest and want to learn about five of our top strategies, click on the link below.
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Learn More About Our Top-Ranked Strategies!<\/a>3<\/a><\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n