When It Comes To Making Plans, COVID Is In The Driver's Seat, Not Mere Mortals

Next month is my friend's birthday. His wife called me today to ask me to come over for a little birthday party. "How little," I asked. She named about a dozen people. "This year?" I asked to confirm my suspicion. I told hold all my plans are being made by the pandemic, not by arbitrary dates and wishes. She did not want to hear that. Maybe I'll suit up and go visit him the day before the party.

Yesterday Thomas Franck wrote a piece for CNBC.com about Mnuchin declaring "We can't shut down the economy again." LOL. We can't-- but COVID-19 can. The Dow lost 6.9% today-- 1,861.82 points. That's a gargantuan one-day loss... and it's because of Wave II fears.

“We can’t shut down the economy again. I think we’ve learned that if you shut down the economy, you’re going to create more damage,” Mnuchin said in an interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer on “Squawk on the Street.”

“And not just economic damage, but there are other areas and we’ve talked about this: medical problems and everything else that get put on hold,”  he added. “I think it was very prudent what the president did, but I think we’ve learned a lot.”

The rise cases amid U.S. reopening efforts has made investors nervous that states may have to reimpose business closures to again try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. That pessimism contributed to the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s 800 point slide Thursday morning and the S&P 500′s 2.6% loss.

Stocks that would benefit the most under a total U.S. reopening led the way lower, with United Airlines down 10%, cruise operator Carnival losing 8.8% and Gap shedding 6.6%.

Mnuchin also said he’s prepared to return to Congress to request additional fiscal spending to help juice the economy if needed.

“We have the Fed program, we have Main Street [lending program], which is going to be now up and running, and we’re prepared to go back to Congress for more money to support the American worker,” he said. “So we’re going to get everybody back to work. That’s my No. 1 job working with the president and we’re going to do that.”

House Democrats last month passed a $3.5 trillion stimulus bill known as the HEROES Act that would prolong jobless benefits through the end of 2020 and provide relief for cities and states that have seen a marked drop in tax revenues. Senate Republicans have opted for a wait-and-see approach and await more data, such as last Friday’s better-than-expected [fake] jobs report, before voting to widen the federal deficit.

It's great-- almost miraculous-- that the early states now have rapidly and consistently sinking rates of new cases. These were yesterday's numbers:

New York +688--> +893
New Jersey +526--> +642
Massachusetts +511--> +392
Pennsylvania +548--> +646
Michigan +267--> +223
Connecticut +114--> +228
Rhode Island +106--> +85
Delaware +50--> +67
Washington +285--> +308

This are also yesterday's numbers for new cases, followed by today's, rapidly growing cases in these states:

California +3,574--> +3,627
Texas +2,023--> +2,012
Florida +1,698--> +1,902 (stats are fake and could be double or triple)
Arizona +1,412--> +1,654
North Carolina 1,177--> +1,846
Georgia +993--> +810
Alabama +856--> +865