A Sloppy Summer for Stocks Is Going to Test Your Stomach
Two visions of a recovery—one optimistic, one bumpy—could make for an interesting quarter.
Perhaps, in retrospect, it was foolish to ever think of the world in black-and-white terms during the age of Covid-19. Yet that’s the trap so many of us fell into, whether corner-suite executives planning a workforce’s return, decision makers in government, or investors trying to get in front of wherever the markets decide to go next.
The scintillating vision of the dark era of Covid lockdowns quickly giving way to a bright, vaccinated future was simply too enticing to resist. But, at the moment, a much-less-satisfying reality is settling in: a sort of gray area between full recovery and the lockdown-era doldrums as the virus stages a fresh assault on the unvaccinated, and its relentless mutations raise questions even for those who’ve gotten their shots.