September 10, 2021
Yesterday's speech by the President laid out a plan to raise the vaccination level.
As we discussed, vaccine mandates for government and the healthcare industry, pose a threat to the employment situation. We already have a labor shortage, driven by federal income subsidies and debt moratoriums. Now we may see the labor shortage exacerbated by firings and walkouts.
With that, on the private employer front, for employers that would be forced to comply with either vaccine or testing mandates, we may find the return to office plans get pushed out even farther.
That probably doesn't bode well for the office stocks. Let's take a look at a couple of those …
First, here's SL Green Realty Corp. (symbol SLG). This is a REIT that primarily invests in office buildings and shopping centers in New York City. As you can see in the chart, as of June, this stock had retraced more than 80% of the losses from the pandemic-induced restrictions. Today it was down 3.8%, the biggest down day since February 25th.
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Next is Boston Properties (symbol BXP). This REIT invests in office buildings in big U.S. markets like Boston, New York, San Franciso, Los Angeles and DC. The stock also had retraced over 80% of the pandemic losses. It was down 3% today. |
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What was UP, in a down market? Maybe one of the favorite "work from home" stocks: Zoom. Zoom was up almost 2%. Perhaps a dip to buy in this chart… |
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