Feb 4, 2020 - Economy & Business

Why the stock market keeps rising despite coronavirus fears

Illustration of a hundred dollar bill with Benjamin Franklin wearing a face mask

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Despite growing fears about the toll of the coronavirus on global economic growth, traders still seem happy to purchase stocks on days following selloffs — frequently citing the adage that there is no alternative to U.S. stocks, as most other assets provide a negligible return.

What they're saying: “The playbook has worked extremely well and it’s one that I’ve deployed, which is [to] rely on central bank injections because the marketplace believes that liquidity can decouple us from fundamentals for a very long time,” Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser for Allianz, said during his CNBC interview.

  • “Everyone seems conditioned to behave this way. But it assumes the shock is temporary, containable and reversible. Those are phrases that are very hard to associate with coronavirus.”

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