Stocks Soar 9%+ On Trump’s Plan To Fight The Coronavirus

The market had another move of more than 9% on Friday, but this time it was to the upside! Weekly declines were still severe, though stocks nearly offset yesterday’s historic plunge as investors had a positive reaction to President Trump’s action plan for the coronavirus.

The sickness is now officially considered a national emergency. As far as the market is concerned, investors already knew that! They watched the major indices plunge from all-time highs to bear market territory in the blink of an eye.

After Wednesday’s poorly-received statements from the Oval Office, investors’ response to the President’s press conference today was “That’s more like it!”

Unlike earlier in the week, he outlined specific plans to protect the country through this pandemic, including getting a lot more tests out there and filling up the strategic petroleum reserve.

Stocks already had a healthy bounce back from yesterday’s purge when the press conference began, but it really blasted off during the event.

By the closing bell, the Dow had jumped 9.36% (or 1985 points) to 23,185.62. That’s its biggest single-day points gain ever.

The NASDAQ soared 9.35% (or 673 points) to 7874.88 and the S&P rose 9.29% to 2711.02.

That performance almost made up for falling off the cliff yesterday. The Dow plunged 10% on Thursday alone, while the other major indices dropped about 9.5% each. The S&P and NASDAQ joined the Dow in bear market territory during the session.

These are certainly two days we will remember for some time to come.

The Dow still lost more than 10% this week, while the other two dipped over 8% each. But just think how bad it would have been without today’s rally!

Unfortunately, this isn’t the end of our problems. Maybe it’s the end of the beginning, but it’s certainly not the end of the end. President Trump even said the next eight weeks were critical.

Eight weeks! No wonder nobody is comfortable calling a bottom! We’re probably going to be hearing about a lot more infections as those tests become more available, but it’s a step that has to be taken before we can move forward.

So that stimulus package would sure hit the spot right about now. Shockingly, Congress is having problems agreeing on a bill. However, the parties are talking to each other, which is no small thing these days.

Sarcasm and cynicism aside, we’ll probably have something pretty soon as both sides understand the need for it. In the meantime, let’s be thankful we can go into the weekend with a big rally at our backs.

Today's Portfolio Highlights:

Insider Trader: The insiders are buying… and so is Tracey. Even though we don’t know if we’ve reached the bottom, the editor took the “no risk, no reward” philosophy by adding four names on Friday. The new buys and the number of insiders adding are:

• Mosaic (MOS) – 3 insiders
• Planet Fitness (PLNT) – cluster buy (4 insiders)
• ServiceMaster (SERV) – cluster buy (5 insiders)
• Newell (NWL) – 3 insiders

All of these stocks are down sharply in this selloff, so these insiders expect to make some money on a rebound. So does Tracey. She added each with a 10% allocation, and plans to add next week if the insiders stay active. Read the full write-up for a lot more on each of these new buys.

TAZR Trader: Talk about good timing! After selling several names on Wednesday to raise cash amid this epic selloff, Kevin added several more back yesterday to take advantage of all the bargains. Two of the positions added were ProShares UltraPro QQQ (TQQQ) and Direxion S&P 500 3X Bull (SPXL), which ended up being the top two winners of the day with surges of 27% each as the market snapped back from Thursday’s plunge.

Counterstrike: "What can I say, we did well today. I had to buy, just had to. “Act like you’ve been here before” kept going through my head. Well, if the financial crisis taught me one thing its that you buy when the negativity is so overwhelming you want to puke. We had that moment. And while we aren’t out of this fully, today was a good start.

"I know its been a rough couple weeks. Hopefully those big winners today filled some holes for you guys. This has been a historic week, if you came out on top, reward yourself this weekend." -- Jeremy Mullin, who had one of the best performers of the day with ProShares UltraPro Dow30 (UDOW) jumping 26.3%.

Have a Great Weekend!
Jim Giaquinto

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