CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Thursday advised investors against selling U.S. equities in response to spiking coronavirus cases across European nations.
“If you follow what they’re doing and you sell our stocks because of what’s happening right now in France, that’s going to prove to be something that you might regret,” Cramer said on “Squawk on the Street.”
“We’re importing their negativity. I don’t think it’s necessarily going to last,” he added, as U.S. stock futures were seeing sharp declines in the premarket. Shortly after Wall Street’s open Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were all down about 1%.
European stocks were sliding Thursday, with the Stoxx 600 down over 2%, as global investors weighed increased coronavirus restrictions in countries such as France, which has declared a public health state of emergency. The U.K. government on Thursday imposed tougher coronavirus restrictions on London in an attempt to curb the rapid spread of the disease.
Investors also were monitoring Covid-19 stimulus negotiations in the U.S., which have been deadlocked for months. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC on Thursday that it will be hard to get a deal before next month’s election. However, he said the White House will not let differences over funding targets for Covid-19 testing derail talks with top Democrats.
The growing spread of the coronavirus across Europe, where new cases are about 100,000 per day — about double the U.S. — is “very frightening,” Cramer acknowledged. “The number of cases are certainly daunting.”
But even though infections in America also are rising, he said the public-health response in the country will be different than in the spring. “That’s what matters” for investors, he contended. “There will be no lockdown.”
Cramer said earlier on “Squawk Box” that there is a nervousness across Wall Street ahead of the presidential election that could be leading to stock selling. Even so, he said he sees “a lot of good” in the market and pointed to earnings from major banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, along with drugstore chain Walgreens.
“I say, let it come down, and then do some buying and I’ve been bearish,” Cramer said. “This is not the time to get wholesale negative. It’s just not.”