See ya sweatpants and stock-up trips to the grocery store

See ya, sweatpants, Zoom calls and stock-up trips to the grocery store.

Hello, daily commute, Southwest Airlines and date night at The Olive Garden.

Will Nov. 9 be the day of reckoning for the “work-at-home” world?

On Barrons online, the headline read “Work-From-Home Stocks Are Plunging. How Far Can They Fall?”

The story noted that grocery, online retail, and streaming stocks were down substantially.

On a day when vaccine maker Pfizer said their COVID-19 solution was 90% effective, it was easy to see the winners and losers in the stock market.

Big risers were foodservice companies, cruise ship companies, resorts, hotels and airlines.

The stock for Zoom, the constant companion of the remote worker, was off 16% near the ending of the trading day. In a day the market was up about 3%, Kroger was trading 6% lower, Amazon dipped more than 5%, Albertsons was off 4% and Walmart was 1.4% down.

In the other column, foodservice distributor Sysco was up 16%, Darden jumped 18%, Wynn Resorts was up 27% and Carnival Corp. was 39% higher.  You better believe the vaccine news was a tonic to all industry associations/companies longing to bring people together in person.

If a vaccine can be delivered, and sooner than later, the end of the work-at-home reality could be closer to coming to an end than we were expecting.
Perhaps this sudden reaction to the news of the vaccine is in fact an overreaction. After all, COVID-19 infections and deaths are rising in many states.

There will probably be a several-month lag between the widespread availability of an effective vaccine and the resumption of normal travel and events. 

With president-elect Joe Biden promising to deal with the virus aggressively, there could be several months of restrictions in place. 

But remember Nov 9. That was the day when the pace of returning to the “new normal” zoomed unexpectedly ahead.