Jim Cramer—known to one of the personalities in his head as Jimmy Chill—is a touch worried about all of these people getting the sniffles.
Well, his old buddy has to say that Cramer isn’t living up to his self-anointed nickname, because as far as Larry Kudlow is concerned, noted epidemiologist Leon Cooperman is dead on with this coronavirus stuff.
“We have contained this. I won’t say [it’s] airtight, but it’s pretty close to airtight,” Kudlow told CNBC’s Kelly Evans on “The Exchange.” He added that, while the outbreak is a “human tragedy,” it will likely not be an “economic tragedy.”
“There will be some stumbles. We’re looking at numbers; it’s a little iffy,” Kudlow said. “But at the moment … there’s no supply disruptions out there yet….”
Still, Kudlow said the U.S. is “holding up nicely,” adding, “All I can do is look at the numbers.”
U.S. stocks turned lower Wednesday, giving up a strong early advance, as investors continued to assess the impact of the coronavirus epidemic and its economic fallout…. Investors were hoping for markets to stabilize after the Dow fell more than 1,900 points Monday and Tuesday in its largest two-day point decline on record.
The 10-year Treasury yield turned lower on Wednesday after an initial bump higher, falling to a new record low amid heightened fears about the fast-spreading coronavirus and its effect on the global economy.
Net leverage, a measure of industry risk appetite that takes into account long versus short positions, rose by about 5 percentage points, one of the fastest expansions in years, according to data compiled by Morgan Stanley’s prime brokerage unit.
While positioning like that could still pay off, it adds to a sense that traders got way too confident at a time when the coronavirus threat was showing no sign of subsiding.
Yup, just some totally normal, record-settingly bad number days, as fears about a pandemic (and number of coronavirus cases and countries recording them) continue to sweep the world beyond the White House gates. You’ve got to hand it to Kuddles, though: He is consistent.
Larry Kudlow says US has contained the coronavirus and the economy is holding up nicely [CNBC]
CNBC’s Jim Cramer on the coronavirus: We have lost containment and this could be worse than we thought [MarketWatch]
Stocks Give Up Gains; Treasury Yields Fall [WSJ]
10-year Treasury yield drops to new record low of 1.30% on coronavirus fears [CNBC]
Hedge Funds Ramped Up Leverage in Stocks Just Before Market Rout [Bloomberg]
Cases Rise in Italy and Iran, and Spread to Other Countries [NYT]