Insight - Back to uncertainty replaces back to school for the stock market

Lockdown beneficiaries keep climbing. The Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet’s Google group, which largely fuelled the S&P 500 Index’s 16% gain last year, have all extended their rallies. E-commerce companies Shopify Inc, eBay Inc and Etsy Inc have notched double-digit gains in 2021. Netflix Inc hit a fresh all-time high last Thursday, and then again last Friday. And DoorDash Inc, the largest food delivery company in the United States, has climbed 41% since June 9.

BACK to school. Back to work. Back to what? That’s the question Wall Street stock traders are trying to answer.

Across the United States, hopes for a post-Labour Day return to normalcy are being dashed by surging Covid cases from the fast-spreading Delta variant. And that uncertainty is showing up in various corners of the market, where some stocks are bucking conventional expectations.