On Monday, November 9, Pzifer announced that their trials of a coronavirus vaccine had been 90 percent effective. That's good news!
But as Reuters reports, this news was a bummer for stockholders in firearm companies:
Smith & Wesson Brands SWBI.O and rival Sturm Ruger & Co RGR.N fell more than 9%, while Vista Outdoor VSTO.N, which sells ammunition and a range of sporting goods, fell over 12%.
[…]
Smith & Wesson's shares have jumped or dropped at least 6% in every session since the election, and they are now down 11% overall since Tuesday.
Fueled by unrest from pandemic, police violence, and more, gun sales in the US have skyrocketed over the course of 2020, with more than 17 million new sales so far — beating all known records of the last 20 years.
It's almost like fear and anxiety are good for self-defense capitalism.
Gun stocks tumble after upbeat vaccine news, lack of civil unrest [Noel Randewich / Reuters]
Image: Mike Prosser / Flickr (CC 2.0)
