David Shapiro, Alec Hogg: After Wall Street’s best run in 80 years, what’s next for SA?

World markets have suffered as Covid-19 containment measures have shut down economies and, in turn, profit prospects for publicly listed companies. But, in a sudden turn of events, US stocks have been powering up. As BizNews editor-in-chief Alec Hogg notes: Wall Street has had its best two weeks in 80 years. Looking back on the year, US equities are only down 10% and tech stocks by a relatively modest 4%. For stockbroker David Shapiro, although the markets have recovered half of what they lost, making up the missing half could be very challenging. In this podcast, long-standing friends and stock-watchers Hogg and Shapiro discuss global developments, including new information that Covid-19 statistics may be problematic. In this podcast, they also dissect local factors that might play into a domestic rebound, covering terrain from the flaws in applying old-fashioned GDP measures to the contemporary environment as well as how the SA economy might come back to life as lockdown eases. – Jackie Cameron

Let's pick up with David Shapiro. The markets themselves, let's just go back a little bit in the last two weeks. Wall Street has had its best fortnight in 80 years, share prices up 15%. As a whole the share prices are only down by 10%. When you take the Dow Jones industrial average if you take the tech stocks in the Nasdaq they're only down by 4% on the year. It's been an incredible recovery, shortest ever bear market. What do you make of this.

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