Wall Street Turns Defensive

Like many of you, I’ve been watching the horrible scenes coming out of Afghanistan. The president said he will be addressing the nation at 3:45 pm, just 15 minutes before the close.

So far, the stock market is down about 0.5%. It’s a very defensive day. For example, the Nasdaq is down about twice as much as the rest of the market. Energy is down the most while Utilities, Consumer Staples and Healthcare are the leaders.

The S&P 500 Low Vol Index is up 0.57% today while the S&P 500 High Beta is down 1.38%.

The Wall Street Journal notes that corporations are hoarding cash.

Cash and short-term investments on corporate balance sheets globally are at an all-time high of $6.84 trillion, according to data from S&P Global, extrapolated from second-quarter earnings reports. That is 45% higher than the average in the five years preceding the pandemic and a 2.6% increase from the previous quarter.

In April, analysts at Goldman Sachs had lifted their 2021 forecast for spending growth by S&P 500 companies to 19% from 10%, “as uncertainty continues to fall and global economies continue to reopen.”

Posted by on August 16th, 2021 at 12:00 pm


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