With people staying home as cases of the deadly virus continue to climb, stocks like these 5 are on the rise.
The stay-at-home play is back in action.
The U.S. reported 39,327 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, surpassing Wednesday’s single-day record of 38,115.
Alabama, Missouri, Nevada, and Texas all reported fresh record highs. Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced today that the state—which now has more than 132,000 confirmed cases of the deadly virus—will pause its reopening plans. Shortly afterward, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the state won’t continue its step-by-step reopening plan as the it has seen a 71% increase in coronavirus cases in the last week.
Several states have also instituted mandatory 14-day quarantines for travelers coming in from the states becoming the new hotspots around the country. And many have issued public mask-wearing mandates in an effort to slow the spread.
With COVID-19 cases surging, investors are again flocking to some of the stay-at-home stocks that saw big gains earlier in the pandemic.
“When the state of Texas was forced to pause its reopening plan because of record COVID infections… suddenly the stay-at-home stocks come back in style and it took up the whole market,” said CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Thursday. “Many of today’s winners were the usual suspects that benefit form the pandemic.”
“The truth is, we’ve been through this before and we know that lots of stocks benefit form the re-emergence of the stay-at-home economy,” Cramer said, adding that the 100 coronavirus stocks he’s following are collectively worth $12.2 trillion. “That’s up from a cool $11 trillion when we put this list together back in April. The entire S&P 500 is only worth $25.2 trillion.”
E-commerce, pantry staples, mega-cap tech stocks, and work-from-home names have been some of the biggest beneficiaries of the coronavirus crisis.
Cramer said that investors are putting more money into stay-at-home plays including names like Clorox (NYSE: CLX), Etsy (NASDAQ: ETSY), McCormick (NYSE: MKC), RingCentral (NYSE: RNG), and Shopify (NYSE: SHOP), with all rallying today. Clorox gained nearly 2%, Etsy added just over 3%, McCormick climbed nearly 4%, RingCentral rallied 4.45%, and Shopify rose 2%.
Bank stocks also rose today after the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission said it would ease guidelines put forth in the Volker Rule after the financial crisis, with the reversal potentially freeing up an estimated $40 billion for Wall Street banks. However, the Federal Reserve countered the move by requiring big banks to suspend their stock buyback programs and cap dividend payments for the third quarter in an effort to prevent capital at several banks from falling to extremely low levels due to impacts from the coronavirus pandemic.
“Stay away from the banks,” Cramer said, adding that the Fed’s action today will ensure fewer bankruptcies.
“In a normal environment, one where we just let the economy happen, so to speak, the stock market would’ve collapsed today,” the host said. “But the Federal Reserve is determined to keep the bankruptcies as low as possible.”