Q2 Growth 'Nothing Short Of Virtuous': Economist

The coronavirus pandemic that began in 2020 and is persisting today has led many investors to hold poor market expectations. But maybe they shouldn’t be so pessimistic.

What Happened: That’s according to a new RSM report stating the U.S. economy grew by over 6% in the second quarter of 2021, making the start of a business cycle as good as things were prior to the pandemic’s onset.

In fact, this last quarter’s growth is the best second-quarter growth recorded since 1983.

“The composition of growth in the second quarter of the year was nothing short of virtuous,” RSM economist Joe Brusuelas wrote in the report.

Technological innovations will begin to be enacted in various industries as the pandemic recedes, and bottleneck issues will generally fade, he said. 

“[I] would not be surprised at all to see jumps in productivity across medical services, which has long been a target of potential digital disruption,” he wrote in an email to Benzinga.

Why It Matters: Several biotechnology and health care funds have made gains Thursday, including ARK Innovation ETF ARKK, ARK Genomic Revolution ARKG and First Trust Arca Biotechnology Index Fund FBT.