Healthcare
Telehealth and Amy Coney Barret implications on Affordable Care Act
The pharmaceutical industry is continuously attracting interest from investors and consumers with the possibility of a vaccine amid the pandemic. In addition, the use of Telehealth services continues to grow in popularity as patients prefer to avoid in-person visits due to pandemic concerns. Changes to state and federal reimbursement have resulted in a massive growth in visits over the past several months, growing at a rate of 7.9 percent. With Telehealth and virtual appointments being at an all-time high, medical professionals predict even after the pandemic, that Telehealth will still play a much larger role than before. CMS has expanded the list of Telehealth services that Medicare Fee-For-Service will pay for during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE). CMS is also providing additional support to state Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) agencies in their efforts to expand access to Telehealth. These actions reinforce President Trump’s Executive Order on Improving Rural Health and Telehealth Access to increase access to better care. Furthermore, with Supreme Court Justice Amy Barrett and the Implications on ObamaCare, since Judge Amy Coney Barrett argued against the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) previously throughout her career, it is implied that she would thus likely rule in favor of the upcoming Supreme Court case that declares the ACA illegal on November 10th. If the case wins in the Supreme Court that means all of the Affordable Care Act would effectively be repealed.
Politics
Uncertainty surrounding the election takes its toll on the market
Stocks fell sharply on Monday, as the number of coronavirus cases is on the rise and negotiations for another financial stimulus package are stalled once again. Monday saw the largest drop since September 3, closing 650.19 points lower (2.3%). This erased most gains made throughout the month of October as it was the first time the Dow has closed below 28,000 since October 6. The confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett just a week before the election has heightened bipartisan tensions and added to the uncertainty that plagues this election. While Barrett was nominated with a majority vote in the Senate (52-48), this move was met with bitter distaste from many Americans and leaders. The GOP seized their opportunity to have a 6-3 conservative majority in the SCOTUS, but this comes at a great cost, as it adds to the uncertainty and ambiguity surrounding the upcoming election. The lack of focus from the Senate on negotiations for another financial stimulus package has had its toll on the stock market, as the “high hopes” that many investors held for this fiscal package were met with the grim reality that it may not come to fruition.
Tech
Volatility surrounding earnings and elections
This week saw a decent drop in the tech sector with Q3 earnings reports rolling out, especially in big players such as Twitter (saw a 21% drop in share price as user growth slowed even though earnings exceeded expectations) and Apple (fell 5.6% as Iphone revenue was lower than expected) as their earnings reports had some unfavorable news leading to declines in share prices. The S&P 500 saw a 5.6% drop this week, the largest ever drop in the week before a presidential election, heightening the uncertainty in an already extremely volatile market. Analyst Yousef Abbasi reports on the sell off in tech saying that “the market has priced tech to near perfection,” meaning the earnings reports may have actually not been bad at all, just a singular piece of bad news could result in a sell off as evidenced by twitter. On a lighter note former Vice-President Joe Biden released a new custom map on the popular battle royale game Fortnite, in hopes to leverage the large population of the gaming community to mobilize voters for the election only a few days away.
Oil
Oil Prices continue to struggle due to the pandemic and the election on the brink
The oil market continues to struggle amidst the COVID-19 pandemic with a warm winter contributing to an even higher risk. According to CNBC news, the next 120 days in this industry will continue to be very difficult. This week we saw about an 11% decrease in crude oil prices. Brent crude was priced just below $38 USD with WIT above $36 USD a barrel, according to Proactive. This is the worst performance seen in the past six months and both benchmarks fell more than ten percent in a week. With the second wave of COVID-19 hitting at full speed in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom the restrictions are heightened. The market is not expected to fall below levels back in April but it is not anticipated to rise anytime soon. As hurricane season is also hitting at the same time, tropical storm Zeta caused immense damage in southwestern Louisiana; more than a million barrels were shut-in as precaution. Libyan exports are expected to reach one million barrels a day in the next month. OPEC is doing their best to manage the market so any additional barrels will diminish their effort. OPEC currently is maintaining cuts of 7.7 million barrels a day. It is expected that OPEC will hold production at current levels. As oil and energy have come to the forefront in the 2020 election taking place on Tuesday is also a possible contribution to the damage in the oil market.
Covid-19 Update
Worst Week To Date
Coronavirus cases are still on the rise since September increasing from a positive testing rate of 6.6% last week to 7.1% this week. The rise in cases does not show any signs of slowing down, with 99,000 new cases of the virus reported on Friday. The immense amount of new cases on Friday broke the Global Record as the numbers show this is the worst week ever for the virus in the United States so far, as the death toll has now surpassed 230,000 Americans. The Presidential Election is almost here and many are going to be tuning in to see who wins and whether a policy change in the handling of covid will accompany that.
Works Cited
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“Drop in Oil Is Related to the Coronavirus Pandemic, next 120 Days Will Be Tough: Pavel Molchanov.” CNBC, CNBC, 30 Oct. 2020, www.cnbc.com/video/2020/10/30/drop-in-oil-is-related-to-the-coronavirus-pandemic-next-120-days-will-be-tough-pavel-molchanov.html.
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Lyons, Kim. “The Biden-Harris Campaign Has Launched a 'Build Back Better' Map in Fortnite.” The Verge, The Verge, 31 Oct. 2020, www.theverge.com/2020/10/31/21543360/biden-harris-campaign-fortnite-map-voting-election.
Saefong, Myra P. “Here's How the U.S. Presidential Election Could Shake up the Oil Market.” MarketWatch, MarketWatch, 16 Oct. 2020, www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-how-the-u-s-presidential-election-could-shake-up-the-oil-market-11602872468.
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