on the round table, my colleagues, ben levisohn, carlton english and jack howe. thought the debate might be the big story of the week until we all woke up friday morning to find out that's president and first lady have covid-19, but the market largely shrugged it off. what's going on? >> they say that the market hates uncertainty, but investors have been planning for a lot of it. if you look at the vix, the market's fear gauge, they're expecting a heightened level of volatility all the way through january. so something like this comes along, and it shocks the market, but it doesn't shock it, i think, as much as people would have normally -- if it had just come out of nowhere. and there's also stimulus talk going on, and actually i wouldn't say in the background. that was taking up a lot of attention this week, the negotiations between mnuchin and nancy pelosi. and that also got the market excited because it would love to see a stimulus bill get passed and have a new cash infusion into the economy. jack: yeah, they both sounded fairly positive, they were making ni

on the barron's round table, ben levisohn, carlton english and jack howe. happy halloween, ben. saw the worst week since march cap off the worst month since march. what do you see happening in the markets? >> yeah. this week was definitely more trick than treat. [laughter] there's, this was the week where everything just came home to roost. we had the election uncertainty which the market had been able to put aside for a while. it came back bigtime. we have these rising covid cases, and there's something about the fact that it hit a record that really stock spooked the market. and then you can have the end of the stimulus dream, earnings from all kinds of companies that no matter how good they were, they really didn't seem to really help the market at all, stocks at all. and by the end of the week, it was just awful. jack: so is there any particular outcome to any of these problems that will help, or is it just anything that shows us here's the course from now on we'll get a boost in the markets? >> i think the good news is that despite everything, the fundamentals are looking g

on the round table, my colleagues, ben levisohn, carlton english and jack howe. et's start with a look at the market. it was down a bit this week as that stimulus offer remained just out of reach, as it always seems to be. covid cases surged. but you're looking under the hood, as always, and you think it's not all one story. >> that's right. i mean, look at the market right now, i don't see a lot of worry either about stimulus or about covid, for that matter. what i do see is some worry about technology. we had all the big tech stocks, a lot of it took it on the chin. apple down 3%, intel dropped 11%, ibm down 3%. it was really more, i think of a tech story that people just didn't want to own these stocks. but other areas were strong, small caps, even the price of copper was rising. jack: so that, along with small caps, suggests maybe the market is actually getting a little bit more optimistic about the economy. >> that's right. you're seeing the small caps, you're seeing dr. copper, saw regional banks gain 7%, and you're also seeing companies that kind of had mis

my colleagues, ben levisohn, carlton english and jack howe. ben, let's start with you. mr.ket is sometimes described as manic depressive, but this week it was more sort of schizophrenia that we saw. what's going on? >> yeah. it was just a very indecisive market. there were days when investors flocked to tech, and other days the nasdaq went down, other parts of the market went up. it really just depended on the news of the day. early in the week we had plenty of things that could have caused the market to sell off including drug trials at johnson & johnson, eli lilly for covid treatment being halted, and we also saw, you know, cases of covid rising. but the market actually pulled through all that and even got some good news from pfizer. but it really, it was almost as if the investors were playing with a rubik's cube and just kept turning their portfolios and buying this and buying that and trying to figure out what they were supposed to own and couldn't do it. thankfully, they didn't chuck it in the corner and just walk away. jack: that's what i would probably do if you gav

my colleagues, ben levisohn, carlton english and jack howe. ben, let's start with you. mr.ket is sometimes described as manic depressive, but this week it was more sort of schizophrenia that we saw. what's going on? >> yeah. it was just a very indecisive market. there were days when investors flocked to tech, and other days the nasdaq went down, other parts of the market went up. it really just depended on the news of the day. early in the week we had plenty of things that could have caused the market to sell off including drug trials at johnson & johnson, eli lilly for covid treatment being halted, and we also saw, you know, cases of covid rising. but the market actually pulled through all that and even got some good news from pfizer. but it really, it was almost as if the investors were playing with a rubik's cube and just kept turning their portfolios and buying this and buying that and trying to figure out what they were supposed to own and couldn't do it. thankfully, they didn't chuck it in the corner and just walk away. jack: that's what i would probably do if you gav