Unsplash/Markus Spiske
The following is one story you’ll find in today’s edition of The Water Coolest’s free daily email newsletter. The Water Coolest is a daily business news and professional advice email newsletter geared towards bros (read: expect a hearty helping of unfiltered commentary and advice on how to suck less at work).
You can sign up now to get the latest news and commentary delivered to your inbox every weekday at 6 AM EST.
Stocks rebounded after their worst week since the financial crisis. The markets fired on all cylinders largely due to rising expectations that the Federal Reserve would cut rates in its upcoming meeting and additional quantitative easing may occur around the globe.
The Dow had its largest one day point gain in history, rising nearly 1.3k, and had its largest percentage increase (5.1%) since ‘08. Sup Hank Paulson. The Nasdaq and S&P both rose at least 4.5% as well, having their best days since 2018.
China data
Manufacturing data came out of the People’s Republic, where China’s PMI, which measures economic trends in manufacturing, came in at 40.3. For reference… a score of 50 shows expansion, so justttt a bit outside.
Its PMI level even dropped as low as 35.7 in February, showing the economic impact that the coronavirus has had on the world’s second-largest economy. Can’t work with a little cold?
Free trade
FinTwit lost its collective sh*t .. and not because it bought the f*ckin dip on Friday. The Robinhood app that has captured the hearts of millennials experienced a system-wide outage, which took up most of the trading day and at the time of writing had still not been resolved.
It’s likely that the higher than normal trading volumes were the cause for the crash, as some clients that used Fidelity, Charles Schwab, and TD Ameritrade reported issues last week during Tuesday’s 800+ point drop of the Dow. Turns out free trades are only good when you can actually submit them.
The bottom line…
The negative economic data from across the Pacific actually had a positive impact on trading, as investors suspect that China’s lowest PMI level ever will invoke some intervention from the People’s Bank of China, and likely from other central banks around the globe. Looking at you, Jay Pow.
Markets didn’t seem to care that Australia, Thailand, and the US all reported their first deaths by coronavirus, or that New York City reported its first case over the weekend. The coronavirus is so last week.
After entering correction territory last week, the bulls were brought back to life during a historic trading day (for some). As for what’s to be expected tomorrow … anybody have a quarter?
Water Cooler Talking Point(s)
💧 “Robinhood out here doing God’s work and saving idiots from themselves.” (Nick, The Water Coolest HQ)
Like what you see? There’s more where that came from. Sign up now to get the latest news and commentary delivered to your inbox every weekday at 6 AM EST.