Dropping Mask Mandates – Are They News or Noise?

The Governor of New York is dropping their stringent indoor mask mandate after nearly 18 months.  They are ending a requirement that businesses ask customers for proof of full vaccination or require mask wearing at all times.

I’m Chris Perras, Chief Investment Officer with Oak Harvest Financial Group. And This is our investment team’s mid-week release when we examine a news item, headline, or story making the rounds from publicly available sources and ask, “Is it News or Noise?”

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Is this story about the removal of mask mandates in our Northeastern state’s and many other areas news to investors? 100% it is?  Why?  Because it should relax the strict burden, that has been placed on 1000’s of small businesses and franchises, around some of the most populist cities in our country.  A burden that many could not afford or enforce without strict economic penalties.  It’s being done just as the case load from Omicron is subsiding. Oregon, California, Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey all said last week that masks can soon come off in a variety of places, due to a plunge in new Covid cases.

As the country moves out of the “full blown” phase of the pandemic, “decisions will increasingly be made on a local level rather than centrally decided or mandated,” Dr. Fauci told the FT last week.

It’s being done, just as perhaps millions of Americans are looking out to school spring breaks trips and planning summer vacations.  It’s being done far enough in advance that there is now hope for a foreign travel and tourism boost pick up this summer back to the United States. Maybe that shopping trip to New York city is back in the cards?

It’s being done early enough for it to have an economic impact on the second and third quarters which are usually slow growth quarters for our economy.  Want to join a gym?  Probably easier.  Want to think about getting that elective surgery back on your calendar?  Easier.

The reduction in mask requirement should be a boost to the service and goods sectors in the 2^nd and 3^rd quarters just as our economy was set to experience a significant and meaningful slowdown just as the fiscal stimulus from 2021 subsides and economic numbers peak and slow.

Viewers this is big news for many of your portfolio holdings.

From the whole team at Oak Harvest, thank you for your support and trust throughout 2021, and we hope we can continue to be your partner and provide you with value added service in 2022.

And Viewers, feel free to give us a call here to speak to one of our advisors.  Let us help you craft a financial plan that meets your retirement goals and needs first, and your greed’s second. Call us at (877) 896-0040 we are here to help you on your financial journey into and throughout your retirement years.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/us/politics/new-york-mask-mandate.html

 

News or Noise:  News!

 

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