Over the past 30+ years of trading and observing markets, it has always seemed to me that a significant terrorist attack or event would have an impact on markets. Beyond the tragic injury, loss of life, and damage to property….it always seemed to translate to a loss in confidence. A loss in confidence of our various levels of protection being penetrated along with a cascade of concern across society. I specifically recall the Beltway Snipers circa 2002 who were operating out of a late model US made car and over about a month of time they gunned down 10 random people. This was quite concerning to society and odd why our protection system was so easily pierced. That is much less likely to happen today because of the “eyes in the sky” and mobile phones with tracking capabilities as well as cameras everywhere.
All that said, we just saw quite a few terrorist events from New Orleans to Las Vegas, back to New York with shootings outside of a club on New Years as well as people being lit on fire on subways. It is concerning to me that our society is on the verge of some level of breakdown and the stock markets don’t seem to care. The stock market (in the US especially) is often called “society’s mood barometer” and I ask myself and pose the question to our viewers…..what is this lack of reaction in markets possibly telling us?