June Flew By— Hello July

Catch Up Quick

• Pfizer reports positive data in early stage coronavirus vaccine trial

• India bans TikTok and WeChat, among other Chinese apps

• The U.S. buys nearly the entire global supply of coronavirus drug Remdesivir

• Uber ($UBER) has offered to buy Postmates

• Nearly half the U.S. population does not have a job

• Fed sees need for ‘highly accommodative’ policy

• Netflix will move $100M in cash into Black community banks

• Dr. Fauci says the revamping coronavirus outbreak "is going to be very disturbing”

• 119 companies have defaulted on debt this year

• The Senate extended the application period for the PPP through August 8th

My Wednesday Opinions

• The Federal Reserve initiated its corporate bond purchasing program this month, investing in the likes of Walmart, AT&T, Philip Morris, and Ford, among others, fueling opposition, as critics believe that efforts should be funneled towards the smaller businesses who have bled more during the pandemic— contrarily, I believe this scope is necessary, while the Fed can theoretically grow its balance sheet to an unlimited size, it cannot assume unlimited risk, and lining its portfolio with larger household names is a compromise on this front

• Pending home sales see record high monthly jump, which has been a point many investors have prioritized above coronavirus concerns— many of these home sales are middle to upper class efforts to increase wealth in the long-run, instead of a legitimate indication of holistic economic equilibrium in which a broader demographic of people use stable income to increase housing market equity

• Lululemon ($LULU) agreed to acquire connected fitness company Mirror for $500M— this is yet another pandemic-driven deal in which a company is betting core business on the long-term presence of coronavirus and its societal effects

Thought of the Day

• Tomorrow morning, unemployment data from June will be released

• June was an interesting month, existing on the verge of both recovery and relapse

• Lots of venues opened back up, and people seemed less concerned about the virus, as tolerance for social distancing dwindled

• Stocks rose, furloughed workers returned to employment, and hope for quick economic rebound was in orbit

• While acting on historical information has its flaws, humans are methodical creatures who do so anyway as it provides an intuitively convenient justification for behavior

The Bottom Line

• All in all, June’s economic data could be highly robust— however, in times of great uncertainty, data ages quickly, in which treating the past as a model for what is to come is even more hazardous

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