Written by: Elizabeth Salas Evans, President & CCO at Cayena Capital Management; MFF Visiting Scholar
May 27, 2020
Since our last economic outlook on May 13th , the death toll regarding COVID-19 has increased about twenty five percent, as the United States (U.S.) exceeds one hundred thousand American lives lost. Many states across the U.S. celebrated Memorial Day by reopening businesses, parks, and other recreational operations to allow for social engagement to resume. With all fifty states now open and businesses progressing through the Trump Administration’s four step plan, many are hopeful for a vaccine that will provide solace to the current catastrophic state of our local and global economy. Yesterday, Brazil recorded the highest daily death toll in the world as President Jair Bolsonaro rallies communities across Brazil and continues to physically engage Brazilians with handshakes and hugs. There are now more than thirty-eight million Americans currently out of work with tomorrow’s jobless claims expected to add another two million, which would mean a jarring forty million unemployed Americans. The Mortgage
Bankers Association (MBA) this morning printed an increase in mortgage applications of two-point seven percent for week ended May 22nd, after a negative two-point six percent from the prior week. Over on Wall Street, life continues to be distorted from Main Street with the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index (DJIA) breaking through twenty-five thousand, Standard & Poor’s Index bobbing just over three thousand, and the Nasdaq nearing the mid nine thousand range. As many hope to hit the beach this summer for a way to beat the heat, regardless of geography, we share in the sentiment of increased uncertainty of what’s to come as weeks progress and the fight against COVID-19 rages on.
