What Happens If Everyone 'Works From Home'

The facts about coronavirus... It's a small world, after all... 'How low will it go?'... What happens if everyone 'works from home'... The software at the heart of online businesses... Three 'hidden' companies in this sector...

We begin today with a different look at the 'coronavirus crisis'...

In yesterday's Digest, we urged level-headedness amid another day of a major stock market sell-off.

We quoted True Wealth editor Dr. Steve Sjuggerud... Retirement Millionaire editor Dr. David Eifrig... and even Warren Buffett. They're all preaching this line of thinking.

Notably, we said Steve's long-term "Melt Up" thesis hasn't changed, despite the recent volatility in the markets.

But as longtime Digest readers know, not everyone has the same opinion at Stansberry Research. That's part of what makes things interesting – and most important, valuable for our subscribers and readers.

'Coronavirus is actually quite alarming, when you think about it'...

That's how the e-mail from Stansberry Venture Technology editor Dave Lashmet began. After reading yesterday's Digest, he wanted to make sure no one was dismissing the seriousness of the coronavirus.

As regular readers know, Dave has been a valuable part of Stansberry Research since the company's early days. As our colleague Justin Brill noted in the October 22 Digest...

He's one of the most genuine and thoughtful individuals you'll ever meet. And he's one of the most careful and deliberate researchers in our business.

First and foremost, he's a scientist at heart... someone who holds facts and hard data above most anything else.

And yesterday, Dave detailed key facts of the coronavirus that he finds worrying...

He started by explaining the rapid rate at which the virus has spread in Europe and the Middle East...

In Italy, Patient 1 went to a local hospital with breathing problems... and due to a failure to follow infection protocols, everyone there got it. Case load went from 1 to 10 to 100 to 200 and climbing in a matter of days. It's now affecting France and a dozen other countries in Europe.

In Iran, the deputy health minister refuted the Qom parliamentarian's claim that 10 people a day were dying in Qom from coronavirus. The next day, he reported that he had coronavirus. And Iran is exporting cases throughout the Middle East.

Dave also believes things might not get back to normal in China for longer than many people are forecasting...

Notice how the date that factories reopen in China keeps slipping? Wuhan is the fourth-largest regional economy in the world, after California, New York, and Texas. (Wuhan makes everything.)

China is bringing in four cruise ships to house medical workers in Wuhan, after over 3,000 existing medical workers ended up with Coronavirus. Cruise ships share air – and norovirus. So, that's not a viable solution.

Dave acknowledged public health officials go the "alarmist" route because they aim to scare people. But he also emphasized the importance of recognizing the truth embedded in the warnings...

As we said in yesterday's Digest, no one's ignoring the coronavirus threat. Despite slowing rates of new cases in China, the virus continues to pop up in new countries. That's concerning folks for good reason.

Moreover, progress has been made toward a vaccine, but we could still be at least a year from seeing it rolled out.

At the least, this whole crisis reminds us that it's a small world, after all...

As Dave explained at the end of his note...

Malaria kills up to 2 million people per year, generally younger children or pregnant women or older folks, largely in equatorial Africa. But mosquitoes don't take international flights to Singapore or Iran or Milan. So that infectious disease never touches the developed world.

This coronavirus is here in the developed world, and it's not singling out the young or the old in particular. Nor is it following boundaries, or for that matter, poorly applied universal precautions. Instead it's spreading rapidly, starting with the manufacturing center of the world.

Think that might affect the economy, and the stock market?

I do.

Impacts could last and lingering fears could hover over the market for quite a while, at least through the summer... For instance, this July's Olympics in Japan are now in question.

But at the same time, the long-term theses of editors like Steve and Doc haven't changed. Nor has our fundamental advice of proper position sizing, allocations, and risk management.

Still, the question was unavoidable this morning: 'How low will it go?'...

With the first case of "unknown origin" of coronavirus in the U.S. being reported overnight, the major U.S. stock indexes began the day selling off again into correction territory...

Stocks are down for the sixth straight day. How much lower are they likely to go?

To answer the question, we turned to our Ten Stock Trader editor Greg Diamond...

When it comes to considering the "key levels" in any market environment and "tops" or "bottoms" in volatile times like these, it's incredibly useful – if not critical – to look at what the technical indicators are saying...

And few in the office track these more than Greg, a veteran technical analyst and Chartered Market Technician ("CMT")... He said he has been working more than 12 hours per day for the past week.

Last night and this morning, he posted multiple updates...

Greg identified 3,000 as the important level for the benchmark S&P 500 Index today...

If the index fell to near that level today and bounced back, it would signal to him the possible bottom of this weeklong sell-off.

Sure enough, that's exactly what played out today.

Stocks plunged at the open... and with the S&P 500 six points above Greg's target, he sent subscribers an update at 11:01 a.m. as action started to turn around. Greg's message was direct...

Need to see more strength but a bottom looks in.

The S&P 500 reached a high at just less than 3,100 in the early afternoon, before drifting back down over the final two hours of trading to finish a fraction below 3,000. As he always does, Greg will keep his Ten Stock Trader subscribers abreast of any updated price targets.

Interestingly, Greg recently made a bullish 'contactless' call...

In fairness to his subscribers, we can't mention the ticker of this company here. But we can say it's part of a "contactless" trend we first mentioned in last Thursday's Digest.

Amid the very legitimate fears of spreading the coronavirus in China, which Dave pointed out earlier, companies like Starbucks (SBUX) and McDonald's (MCD) have turned to precautionary measures that limit employee-to-customer contact.

The point is, people still want their coffee and hamburgers, but nobody wants to get sick. It's a similar story in other areas of life...

In China, schools and universities have gone online to keep business running as close to normal as possible... Steve and his True Wealth Opportunities: China research team gave an update about this aspect in their most recent issue, which hit inboxes this evening.

And we're hearing more instances of companies suggesting 'work from home' in affected countries...

This month alone, 77 public company transcripts have mentioned "work from home" or "working from home," according to financial data platform Sentieo. From "digital world" publication Recode...

"The crisis is a very, very big challenge to the society," Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang told investors on a recent earnings call, but it also gives people a "chance to try a new way of living and new way of work."

As this virus spreads, more firms – like Microsoft (MSFT) and Chevron (CVX) – are shutting down offices. In turn, working from home, web conferencing, and remote communication platforms like Slack (WORK) – which we use at Stansberry Research – become a need.

And this trend could be applied to almost all areas of life...

Think about it: Amazon (AMZN), as well as other online retailers and related web-based platforms, does an insane amount of business... in part because of the convenience it provides.

In a world where parts of the U.S. would be under quarantine with folks working from home for a long period of time, businesses like that become a necessity.

Of course, we hope this post-apocalyptic scene never happens...

We can't imagine quarantine orders going over very well should they happen in the U.S.

Plus, the virus has disrupted normal supply and demand across many industries already. And not all business can be done online...

Apple (AAPL) employees aren't going to start making iPhones in their garage anytime soon.

But a lot of businesses, like the financial-newsletter industry, could be run online by employees anywhere in the world.

And there's one type of software that is often at the heart of the online businesses...

It's something Stansberry Venture Value editor Bryan Beach has written about extensively of late: Software as a Service ("SaaS").

Bryan detailed this industry and the opportunities within in it in the January 28 Digest...

In short, these are software companies that have made the world more efficient for businesses and consumers... He used retail software company Shopify (SHOP) as a prime example.

Companies in this space have returned an incredible 56% per year, on average, for more than a decade.

And that's before their significance has only become apparent to a larger audience, as the unexpected coronavirus has threatened to turn parts of the globe into "work from home" worlds.

Today, of course, these companies aren't cheap...

That's why it's our great fortune that Bryan has already spent the past year looking for SaaS businesses that the market is currently missing for one reason or another.

And he has identified three "hidden" companies in particular that he believes could easily grow 10-fold in a few years – companies that run the same business model as Shopify and Salesforce (CRM), but haven't shown up on investor's radars yet.

If you want to learn more about these companies, we encourage you to check out a special, limited-time offer to join Bryan's Venture Value service. But don't delay... The deal ends tomorrow. Click here now for all the details.

New 52-week highs (as of 2/26/20): iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond Fund (SHY).

In today's mailbag, feedback on yesterday's Digest about staying level-headed as the coronavirus spreads... and praise for our "boots on the ground" report from China. Do you have a question or comment? As always, send it to feedback@stansberryresearch.com.

"Corey, Wednesday's Digest brought back memories from 2008. At that time I was a new customer to Stansberry Research and had precious little money to invest but I knew the time ahead would be a great time to make money. Trouble was, I myself had neither the knowledge nor discipline to do it and would have to trust someone else.

"Porter's business motto, 'What he'd want to know if our roles were reversed' made it possible for me to make money and learn in the process why and how things work the way they do with a certain 'comfort.' I knew learning discipline was paramount and when the how's and whys are explained it's much easier to learn it.

"Back then I just read, learned and, 'sat on ready' and waited for you people to say 'go.' I have a little jingle in my pockets now and I'm much smarter thanks to all of you... Thank you!

"As the last part of the Melt Up unfolds and I watch this correction/Corona-panic and see opportunities starting to appear I must admit I'm a little bit 'froggy' but I won't jump til you all say jump. I'll just sit back and watch and continue to learn while I have another Corona... Umm... beer that is.

"Thank you all for what you do!" – Paid-up subscriber Craig R.

"Please thank Jia for her very interesting 'on the ground' report. It was very interesting to see what daily life is like, at least from one person's perspective. My best to her and her family and hopefully everyone is all right!" – Paid-up subscriber Dan S.

All the best,

Corey McLaughlin Baltimore, Maryland February 27, 2020