Liontrust's Dowey: The bull and bear cases for the stockmarket

'Demand collapsing because it must'

When analysing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the stockmarket, by far the most significant bear case to worry about logically follows from the widely reported and influential recent Imperial College London study of the virus.

The team at Imperial believes we may need to keep applying severe social distancing measures until a vaccine becomes available because the virus is likely to bounce back whenever we lift the restrictions again. The problem is that a vaccine is perhaps 18 months away, so this could cause a depression. Right now, demand is collapsing across much of the global economy because it must. It is inhumane not to shut down the economy to suppress the virus. Survival and revival: The keys to portfolio management in a crisis The immediate job for economic policy is an unusual one: rather th...