Friday's Market Minute: Delta Déjà Vu

In the face of rising cases of COVID-19, more companies are delaying their planned return to offices until January 2022, including Apple AAPL, which was due to welcome employees back in September.

Fears of the more contagious Delta variant have also caused a few states and big cities to reinstate indoor mask mandates regardless of vaccination status. Those include Hawaii, Nevada and Oregon, New Mexico, Washington D.C., and Chicago. Additionally, some of this week’s housing and jobs data came in below estimates, leaving investors questioning the strength of the economy amid renewed uncertainties. The market reaction hasn’t been pretty. The major U.S. stock indices have fallen off recent highs, most notably the small-cap Russell 2000 (RUT). There’s also been a weakness in consumer spending, which has weighed down payment stocks in the Fintech space like PayPal PYPL and Square SQ.

The less confident consumers feel about the near-term economy, the less likely they are to spend on discretionary purchases. Unsurprisingly, that includes the travel and restaurant spaces as well. Not everyone is bearish on restaurants, however. Cowen analyst Andrew Charles, who likes Chipotle Mexican Grill CMG and Starbucks SBUX, sees the Delta fears as short-lived, which will allow the reopening stocks, including restaurant chains, to keep their doors open to the public. Nobody wants to endure a winter like last year’s, but for now, it seems like all we can do is wait.