100% Summer Sale at Minneapolis Target!
It’s good for gun sales; locked-in freedom-lovers aren’t returning to the outdoors peacefully as protests to police brutality devolve into looting and rioting. The death of George Floyd was the catalyst; the catalyst for mayhem!
The majority of a country’s citizenship has been instilled with fear, locked in their houses. There are no “pressure valves” through sport, concerts, or socializing, and the healthy have been forced to cover their faces.
You may say it’s just a minority of the police force with a minority of rioters, but a majority furor now resists leadership from up top. Investors should be ready to predict the domino effect through politics and consumer trends.
If the United States locked down in the face of the virus threat two months ago, it can’t reopen now. It only takes a few superspreaders in a crowd of protesters to trigger a second wave, so allowing people to march is a death sentence.
This puts President Trump in a lose-lose, undermine his stance on the pandemic by letting folks out or double unemployment again by keeping them in. There’s lockdown fatigue; folks are in the mood to disobey. The escape route is to quell the protests and Trump’s been asking states to “toughen up,” accordingly.
Investors might ‘risk-off’ in anticipation of a market awakening as extended lockdowns rise in probability. There are looters walking out The Cheesecake Factory with entire cheesecakes (!), so perhaps buy the dip of mega-stores getting ransacked? Dick’s Sporting Goods could also benefit as people lock and load AR-15s to defend their businesses, and the companies outfitting a new militarized police force could also be about to boom.
It’s gonna be volatile in the short-term, that’s for sure, but use the uncertainty to your advantage and be kind to your neighbor at this time. This moment in history will drag on for a while, and who knows where it’ll lead us?