Fore: Investors Flee Equities; Looking for Safety, Certainty – RVBusiness – Breaking RV Industry News

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following was written by Gregg Fore, former partner of G&G Media and chairman of the RV Industry Association, retired president of Dicor, and a member of the RV/MH Hall of Fame.

When U.S. Equity markets opened this morning, the DOW opened down 2.8% and the Nasdaq down 3.5%, and this followed a dramatic market sell-off from April 3.

Even though the current administration, since taking office, had warned of the use of tariffs as both offensive and defensive tools in international trade, the warnings had little impact as investors stayed relatively quiet, waiting for more certainty.

After the official announcements on tariffs, investors began the sell-off of equities looking for more safety as the future of corporate profits, inflation, and consumer demand seemed cloudier than ever.

Even in the days of the rallying around the development and use of AI, the market leader, U.S.-based NVDA has lost nearly one-third of its market value since mid-February. Possibly a sign of troubles ahead, or maybe a signal that equities have been overpriced and the tariff’s triggered a correction.

Even with these negative market conditions, not much has changed relative to the market dynamics and demand for RVs – it is not likely that industry shipments or retail registrations will mirror the drop in stock values.

Even so, the impact on RV related stocks has been, and continues to be, more dramatic than the overall equity markets. After suffering considerable losses throughout the day on April 3, early activity on the morning of April 4, found the negative pace continuing. 

• Camping World (CWH) after falling 16% on April 3^rd, was off an additional 10% this morning.
• Thor (THO) fell 10% on April 3^rd and opened today down an additional 6%
• Winnebago (WGO) fell 8.3% on April 3^rd and opened today down another 6.0%
• Patrick (PATK) fell approximately 9% on April 3^rd and another 5% this morning.
• Lippert (LCII) down 9.8% on April 3^rd and another 5% this morning.

It appears that until there is some “settling” in the World Trade arena, equity values will be quite uncertain.

Source: https://rvbusiness.com/fore-investors-flee-equities-looking-for-safety-certainty/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fore-investors-flee-equities-looking-for-safety-certainty