 So joining us now is Melissa Armo is the founder and owner of the stock swoosh joining us today Melissa great to speak with you We've seen a tremendous amount of volatility over the past few sessions today markets closed sharply higher Following an announcement from the US Commerce Department saying that retail sales they surged 17.7% in May now this particularly the significance of it put that around us or put the significance of this situation Into context for us and then especially as states are reopening their economies. I Definitely think today was good news But I think it was a one-day pop it remains to be seen if we're gonna see any follow-through because don't forget Thursday morning We always see the unemployment claims and even though they have been descending since March since COVID-19 hit the United States I tell you I really don't have high hopes that we're gonna see follow-through with this retail pop today I would like to I think would be good for markets But I think when we sold off last Thursday and into Friday when we saw the unemployment claims last Thursday That's when we fell that was a pretty big sell-off and I don't think today really in my mind Turned that completely around even though we've seen brand new all-time highs in certain indexes like the QQQs We have not seen them in the SMP and we've not seen them in the Dow I will say though that the market has had a tremendous rally in the last I'd say six weeks Considering what's happened if 22 million people out of work So that's still a lot of people and it's a lot hanging over the market and particularly these retail stores because if people aren't making money If they're unemployed, they're not going to go out and continue buying buying buying You see major sales with some of these retailers that are hurting Macy's Nordstrom even Marcus to clear bankruptcy I don't think some of these retailers are out of the woods You know, I think you bring up a great point and just to elaborate on that a little bit more and Swing the question back your way when you look at the retail scene right now Of course two-thirds of this economy is consumer driven consumers need jobs to be able to Spend at the same levels that we were seeing pre pandemic How many of those jobs especially in a retail environment that had coming into the pandemic Employed one out of every five workers in the US. How many of those jobs are coming back? Some of them are going to come back, but some of them are not going to come back and that's the problem Some of these stores are closing stores because they're trying to save their businesses In fact, there's talk that there's a possibility that Neiman Marcus, which is the big anchor for Hudson Yards in New York may leave That would be catastrophic for that entire project that was built around Neiman Marcus Even though there's other shops in there, they're very high-end shops and it's not going to have the draw that whole project It's not going to have the draw if Neiman Marcus that big anchor leaves But you know they declare bankruptcy and nobody knows if they've been paying their rent for the last few months All of these retailers have been hit by COVID-19. It's not just the consumer people losing their jobs Businesses have been hit businesses that you and I enjoy shopping that I don't want these places to go out of business It's not good news when they declare bankruptcy for people that are still working and have money to spend I don't want the shops that that I like to shop at to go under so it's problematic And even though the economy doesn't go hand in toe with the market It absolutely will affect earnings into third quarter fourth quarter 2020 and again I think this is going to carry over into 21 2021 now does it mean that the market again? Is it going to continue further in the uptrend in the spine the QQQ's not necessarily? But I think we may trade in a range here for this summer I think it's going to be very dependent on one the election Which is not until November so it's a couple of months off and to what happens with us China relations as far as the overall broad-based market Because there's tension there and that tension is going to come to a head now whether it comes to a head before after the election I really can't say but I do think that that is going to come to a head at some point And that is the one thing that could affect this market in a negative way Okay So I do want to come back to that because that actually triggers something in my mind about what the president said During his police reform signing that ultimately pivoted into a different tangent on the markets earlier today But you know as you're thinking through where we are seeing this uptrend move towards right now But the volatility that still very much entered the equation re-entered the equation on Thursday of last week Would that volatility be something that investors look more at and say you know ultimately the volatility is just not worth the risk Or is that something that they kind of hinge hinge their bets on at this point in time? But here's the problem. It's just rates are going like this boom down I mean if you want to invest your money and earn anything on it Where where can you put it? You can safely put it in a savings account and earn maybe in a good money market Close to 1% but that's like next to nothing Especially if you have a large amount to invest so the market is still the best place to earn the best for your bank For your buck, but it really does depend on your time horizon If you're an active trader you have to be very careful about navigating these markets And of course if you're an active trader you can short But if you're a long-term investor Then you're gonna have to stay through this volatility if you really want to earn money and save for retirement Because there's no telling when there's gonna be a stop to this volatility They're talking about a second wave for COVID-19. God help New York City if that happens Businesses have been hit with the pandemic. They've been hit with the looting some of the stores now They've had to you know reopen a second time around fix all these stores. They've had tremendous damage I mean, you know at this point now if you're in the market long term You can just wipe out 2020 in your mind if you're in it for the long term because there's no telling when this is all Going to be over but for active traders you have to navigate it very carefully for long-term investors This is the best place to put your money for the biggest bang for your buck You know as we're kind of coming back to what you mentioned a moment ago with US China particularly the president talking about this Indirectly earlier today and once again kind of signaling a racist Undertone in the way that he talked about the coronavirus in itself COVID-19 How much of that weighs on the US China trade talks and how do investors looking towards the future Kind of put their expectations place their bets and their expectations around a Negotiation that could be off the table should some of that tenor and that tone That has been very direct about placing the blame for coronavirus on China continue from the president. I Think that President Trump is going to be careful what he says about China until after the election and if he wins re-election Then I think it's going to come to a head after that and again this could be 2021 so the market could be in a range between here where we are right now and where we were last week and the March lows This summer and it could be until after the election I really don't have a hundred percent conviction that the SMP reaches brand new all-time highs before the election or even in 2020 it could I could be surprised and that could happen But I would be less surprised if we ran down and retested the March lows Now what would create a sell-off like that something that would happen with China? It could be something that China says it may not be something that President Trump says It is going to come to a head and at some point investors need to know that because there's tensions there There's ten there was tensions there before COVID-19 and the market reacted very aggressively every time we heard something right It was tires tires in 2018-2019 Anytime the market sold off almost it seemed to do with tires The market didn't care about anything else the market didn't care about Huge massive unemployment numbers in the last three months But the market does care about tariffs and that does affect companies and it does affect their earnings And it does affect the regular consumer and of course everyone's concerned where that's going to be fast forward 1224 months from now depending who wins the presidential election Melissa always a pleasure to get your insights. Thanks so much for joining us on the show today Stay healthy stay safe can't wait to check back in with you Melissa Armo who's the founder and the owner of the stocks