My apologies for not adding any further posts last week, but there was little of note to comment on within the business arena; but on a personal note, I attended the funeral service for my Father, which was in fact a treasured day with everything going as it should have, including the weather.
Today, well it appears we have a new political storm to contend with….!
Just as we thought we were getting back on track, another crazy setback upskittles the mood and takes centre stage; however, I would prefer to focus more on matters which will affect our savings and investments; so moving swiftly on, I am pleased to see that, after a week where the impact of this virus has continued to fall within the UK (if ever so slightly), the government have now given a directive as to when many types of businesses can finally re-open and that will be within the next two weeks. This will allow some time for these businesses and sectors to prepare and to bring their staff back from furlough (hopefully they choose this route, rather than redundancy).
This morning, the UK sharemarket, a good gauge for investor sentiment, has opened a couple of percentage points up, reflecting the optimism felt from the news.
So where exactly are we in the curve of recovery?
Well, whilst sharemarkets (and investment markets in general) are continuing their rise, there is still a view that this is more of a ‘bear-like’ recovery rather than a ‘bull-market’ rush, as we have yet to test the ‘new world’ post-Covid19 lockdown. I am sure we will see more business casualties as the world wrestles with recovery and possibly a changed consumer appetite and I feel that this will go in one of two directions. Either we will quickly regain old habits and the marketplace can be sustained by consumer spending, thus keeping a lot of jobs alive, or we will continue to be plagued by restrictions of one sort or another for some time to come, such as social distancing or a second spike of the virus, making recovery a much more difficult process. Only time will tell, but we will know by August I am sure.
One thing is certain though, life will continue and eventually we will get to a point where we move forward beyond where we were back in February/March before the lockdown began, possibly with a much leaner and fitter environment to work within, if not a clearer marketplace; there will be outfall, with China taking some of the brunt perhaps and also a need to recover some of the significant costs of lockdown within our economy and also within our government’s finances, but if this can be managed gradually and consistently, then we may be fine…oh and then there’s Brexit, but it’s all about baby steps!
So what of this week? Well, there has been no real talk of a resurgence of the virus, which is good news, investment markets seem to be continuing with their recovery and the sun is shining again! So far so good, if you ignore today’s TV and newspapers and the obvious story on which I’m sure we will all have a view!