On Friday markets were down again. The S&P 500 was down 1.7% and Toronto was down 2.3%.
Stantec at $40.57 has weathered the storm much better than most stocks. The same can be said for Couche-Tard.
Many stocks are down to what would appear to be definite bargain prices.
But there is a lot of fear in the population and that could certainly push stocks lower. When people are hoarding toilet paper there has to be a lot of fear. It looks like the rough ride will continue. At some point markets will recover. Looking back we may find the slump was relatively short-lived. But as we live through slumps they always seem to go on for a long time.
The latest World Health situation reports shows just 105 new cases and 28 new deaths (out of 81,000 total cases, over half of which now recovered). China has 3073 deaths but it looks like they really have the virus largely contained with little spreading at this point.
The rest of the world however had 3633 new cases and so the spread is not contained especially in a few countries.
Hopefully the fearful reaction in Canada and the U.S. will mean there will be little spreading and, if so, the fear should be much reduced after a few weeks.
On Friday, Statistics Canada released a good jobs report for February. The monthly figures are volatile but over the past year the jobs gain has been strong.