Hurricane Sandy hit Wall Street today and resulted in a historic closure of the stock market due to the threat of flooding. But is this a cause of changing investment strategy?
My thoughts go out to those in the potential of harm's way. However, being a long-time resident on the coast of South Carolina, I am no stranger to storms. As I write this, Hurricane Sandy has yet to deliver her full force and damage has yet to be determined and calculated. With that said, I am confident this is no cause to run for the exits and put all of your savings into money market funds.
Although the number of Atlantic storms in 2012 is high (we've had 19 named storms this year and the historic average is around 12), the monetary damage has been significantly low. Therefore the broad assessment (for now) is that the economic impact of tropical cyclones in 2012 is below recent years.
Again, I wish the highest of safety to friends and family in the Northeast this afternoon. I imagine we may actually be happy (in some ways) that the Democrat vs Republican political skirmishes will return by mid-week.