So far, fear has driven investors to sell consumer-exposed stocks. A basket of such companies — including Oreo cookies maker Mondelez International Inc. and Modelo beer producer Constellation Brand Inc. — is down nearly 9% since early August with losses roughly double those of the S&P 500 Index, while makers of things like insulin pumps have wiped out close to a third of their value over the same stretch amid concerns that fewer people will need their products.
Everything about this article is definitely absurdly horrible. “Earnings season” is a reasonable concept, I guess, but somehow I don’t feel good at all about such financial abstractions that people take very seriously. The concept that these companies depended on excessive or compulsive consumption to make money and people are cutting down not because they obtained a clue or motivation, but due to an injectable drug, is pretty pathetic for humankind.