Welcome to Thoughts on the Market.

I'm Mike Wilson, Chief Investment Officer and Chief U.S. Equity

Strategist for Morgan Stanley.

Along with my colleagues bringing you a variety of perspectives, I'll be talking about the latest trends in the financial marketplace.

It's Monday, April 20th at 10 a.m. Eastern, so let's get after it.

While COVID-19 is a real health crisis that is likely to be with us for years, aggressive

social distancing policies that are critical to the fight have also severely

weakened the economy in the process. The administration has responded with a plan to

return to work that provides guidelines for states to follow in their pursuit of opening America back up for business,

while leaving the final decision up to the individual states on when and how to get back to work.

On a related note, our latest Alpha Wise survey suggests that the concern for consumers

may be starting to shift from protecting oneself and family from the virus to worrying about one's job and financial health.

In the past week we've witnessed protests in several states from citizens that want to return

to work sooner rather than later.

Whether or not such an expedited return to normal

leads to a recurrence of the virus later this year remains to be seen, but in the

near term the market will see an economy that might normalize faster than

feared.

This is the primary reason why stocks had another good week in our view.

Other factors supporting stocks last week include the encouraging data on some drug therapies

and more realistic expectations around the economy and

earnings growth.

...