Rising caseloads for the virus, mainly from the highly contagious Delta variant, and mostly among unvaccinated people, helped unsettle stocks last week. Barnum said, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” Unfortunately, the Delta variant has not been good news for most of the market with the exception of “Covid stocks.”Covid stocks are very large cap, internet/technology-intensive growth stocks that do well if the economy is open or shut. During 2020, the Covid year, the largest 100 stocks of the Nasdaq appreciated by 48.6%. Atkeson: Falling interest rates help the Covid stocks because the discount rate on future earnings is lowered. Since June 15, there has been a pronounced change of leadership from the Russell 2000 small-cap index to the Nasdaq and from U.S. value stocks to U.S. growth stocks.

Source: Forbes July 19, 2021 12:22 UTC