Markets may continue to look past negative coronavirus news, especially if projections continue to show that the economy is expected to rebound after the pandemic, according to Goldman Sachs.
An analysis by the bank using changes to gross-domestic-product forecasts found that investors typically discounted at least the next two years of macroeconomic performance, a Monday note said.
That means that metrics that focus only on growth over the next year — such as multiples based on 12-month earnings expectations — "will overstate current valuations, given the large rebound expected beyond this year," Zach Pandl, a cohead of global foreign-exchange and emerging-markets strategy, wrote in the note.
While the coronavirus-induced recession is set to be the deepest contraction in modern history, it's also likely to be the shortest, Pandl said. Many economists expect that, after a dip in 2020, GDP will rebound in 2021 and 2022. By early April, consensus GDP forecasts incorporated a virus hit, down 4% this year. But forecasts are for 4% growth in 2021 and 3% in 2022 — an unusual pattern, Pandl said.
That means that more disappointing data in the near term may not weigh heavily on markets, as activity is expected to snap back "relatively quickly," Pandl wrote. "The depth of the downturn matters much less than the duration of the recovery," he said.
Goldman's analysis came amid a stock-market recovery from March 23 lows. As US states weigh relaxing strict lockdown measures designed to curb the spread of COVID-19, stocks have slowly gained on optimism that the economy will soon reopen. From March 23 to Monday's close, the S&P 500 gained about 29%, but it was down about 15% from all-time highs in February.
Still, many economists disagree that any rebound after the coronavirus pandemic will be a quick one. Instead of the sharp V-shaped recovery that Goldman is suggesting, many expect a rebound to take a softer U shape.
This article originally appeared on Business Insider.
