Via Bloomberg
Everywhere we look it os doom and gloom. One of the sad things about working in finance is seeing trouble coming before most of your friends and family. A few weeks ago I was speaking at our church leadership meeting about the coming of the coronavirus and two of my other co-leaders clearly thought that I, and the rest of the media, were overreacting about COVID19. In February I had been hoping that this COVID19 would just be the 'flu' in a different form. Sadly, I was wrong. COVID19 is no joke and most of the world is sat at home while stock markets tumble, oil looks like heading to $10 and below and some unfortunate few are losing their lives. These are sad times and we are living through a historic moment. Those who come out of this time will come into a different world. However, not all are being battered by the storm.
Weathering the storm
European shares are heading for their worst quarterly drop in 33 years. However, amongst the multitude of losers there are some winners bucking the trend and not just surviving, but thriving. The main winners have been health care companies, food deliverers and video-game makers. As an anecdotal example my regular Indian takeaway delivery driver said that they are overwhelmed with orders and can't buy in enough chicken to meet demand. Traditional defensive sectors have also seen increasing demand.
Take a look at this chart below outlining some of the European winners:
