Stock market underperforms due to Coronavirus
Photo courtesy of lifeandmyfinances.com
The stock market has taken a detrimental hit as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, and while it has begun to return to normal in certain businesses, most markets are continuing to decline.
The stock market is being negatively impacted by the spread of the novel Coronavirus, affecting many Staples students who own stocks.
“The Coronavirus wiped about the past four months of my gains in the span of a few days,” Brian Campbell ’20 said. “While I haven’t technically lost any money because I haven’t sold anything, every day it seems to become more and more likely that I will not be breaking even and lose about 33% of my portfolio when it is all said and done.”
When panic about the coronavirus broke out, many investors and share owners tried to sell their stocks immediately.
“Coronavirus put a shock to the marketplace and the fear of the virus has slowed the economy,” Elle Desmarteau ’22 said. “All the price of my stocks have gone down around 10%.”
Because the market is dictated by companies’ successes and how desirable and valuable one share is, when an infectious disease breaks out, the future success of these companies comes into question, making the value of the stock decrease.
“China is the biggest manufacturer in the world,” Jake Fitzpatrick ’22 said. “So it makes sense that since such a giant population is in quarantine, you have a lot of people who aren’t working and making those products and a lot of countries that are worried about shipping.”
The New York Times reported that the S&P 500, a stock market index that measures the stock performance of 500 large companies, is on track for the market’s worst week since the 2008 financial crisis.
“The value of my option contracts has decreased by approximately 93% since I purchased them,” Campbell said. “Before coronavirus, I was up about 80% on them.”
