Expected vs. Unexpected News

Private payrolls were announced, showing that over 20 million people had lost their jobs. But, the market didn't react very much -- likely because this was an expected number. Check out this article at yahoo! entitled: Why Wednesday's historic jobs data was 'not really news'

Negative Oil Prices

In the wake of a drop-off in the demand for oil, prices went negative for the first time in history. What does this mean? Like any asset, the price of oil is driven by supply and demand. With high supplies and effectively no demand, suppliers are now having to pay users to take oil off their hands since they have too much and nowhere to store it. In fact, on April 20, some oil prices actually closed at -$37.63. So, if you have any place to put it, you could get paid to takes some oil. See article here, Forbes.

Free Connect for Move to Virtual Courses

For those moving to virtual courses, McGraw-Hill's Connect platform is being offered free of charge: https://www.mheducation.com/highered/support/connect/how-to-move-your-course-online.

Circuit Breakers Tripped

In the wake of an oil price war and coronavirus fears, the market sold off rapidly to start the day on 3/9/2020. Very quickly, the market fell 7%, triggering a circuit breaker and halting trading for 15 minutes. Find out more about the activity here, CNBC.

Flight to Safety

As a response to significant risk, investors often undertake a "flight to safety." To benefit from this behavior, Direxion recently launched FLYT, which is an ETF based on a flight to safety strategy. The investments are split among utility and gold stocks, as well as bonds. You can find more information here, Direxion.

Tesla Destroys Shorts

Following strong results, Tesla shares hit an all-time high, jumping nearly 79% over the past year. There have been a significant number of skeptics who were short, and the recent jump further exaggerated their losses. In fact, short sellers in Tesla have lost over $8 billion in the last five weeks alone. See article here, WSJ.

Unexpected Coronavirus Impact

The World Bank issued a pandemic bond in 2017. The bond provides funding for the development bank’s Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility (PEF) if a the severity of an outbreak of one of six viruses meets certain levels. This is similarly to an insurance catastrophe bond. See article here, Marginal Revolution.