Finance Monthly March 2020 Edition

BUSINESS & ECONOMY - CORONAVIRUS 29 www.finance-monthly.com been affected by the coronavirus are becoming more and more health-conscious, trying to take precautionary measures through buying products like hand-wash, wipes, sanitisers, disinfectants, etc. At the time of writing this, pharmacies and drug stores in the UK have run out of hand sanitisers due to popular demand. Johnson & Johnson is therefore expected to “continue experiencing rapid growth in revenues and earnings in the foreseeable future,” says Professor Kass. Thus if anything, the virus’ outbreak could create a long-term positive effect on the Johnson & Johnson stock. Apple Thanks to the coronavirus outbreak, global technology giant Apple has been hit hard from multiple angles, with having to temporarily close all corporate offices, stores and contact centres in Mainland China, and suppliers being ordered to reduce or halt production. This was all followed by a 5% drop in Apple’s stock on 31st January, however, Apple will be perfectly fine and remains a stock worth investing in. Yahoo Finance believes that the App Store will get a big boost during the outbreak due to the hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers being stuck at home right now, who will be looking for ways to entertain themselves. Additionally, February doesn’t tend to be a big month for iPhone sales as it is. The company relies heavily on its new iPhone launch in September and by then, coronavirus will be in the past (hopefully). Apple’s stock remains loved bymost investors and will undoubtedly weather the coronavirus storm. Once that’s over, with the release of its 5G iPhone, the tech giant is expected to see huge growth in the last few months of the year. Netflix Despite the tumble in the broader market averages, Netflix stock, along with other home entertainment stocks have been less affected. Netflix stock has made somewhat of a comeback after a solid run in 2018 – it has seen an increase in stock value of some 40% since September. On the stock market on Thursday 27th February, the video streaming provider fell 2% to 371.71 after spending most of the session in positive territory. Raymond James analyst Justin Patterson commented: "We believe Netflix is in a unique position to benefit from 1) a solid content lineup; 2) normalisation of competitive landscape; 3) increased consumer time spent indoors". It makes perfect senses - more and more people choose to not leave their houses amid coronavirus fears across the globe, whichmeans that technology companies that serve consumers at home, such as Netflix, could come out as a winner from the coronavirus outbreak. Netflix stock ranks number 15 on the IBD 50 list of top-performing growth stocks. vv