Business is booming for a Beaumont company called Infrared Cameras Inc.
WFAA's news partners at the Dallas Business Journal report the firm usually sells 100 cameras a month. In the past two months, they have sold more than 1,000 of their devices, which can be used to scan the public and detect even slight spikes in body temperature so that people can be pulled aside and screened for Coronavirus.
The virus has already brought Chinese industries to a near halt. And now it threatens other powerhouse economies like South Korea and Italy. What happens elsewhere affects companies in Texas. It can also bring down consumer confidence. That would be a huge deal.
Jason Wheeler went to a luncheon last week where renowned economist Jim Huntzinger, the Chief Investment Officer of BOK Financial, shared a slide showing that American consumers spend more than the U.S. government.
In fact, it also illustrated that consumer spending is worth more than the whole economy of China.
If you started to fear something, and lose confidence, you may be more likely to close your wallets, which could crash the U.S. economy.
American consumer confidence has held steady. But this month's measurement came before the virus started aggressively spreading outside China.
Wall Street hasn’t been confident that American will stay confident -- that’s why stocks have been going off cliffs this week.
But some perspective, MarketWatch looked at virus outbreaks over the last four decades. With the exception of two epidemics, HIV in 1981 and measles in 2014, stocks rebounded significantly six months and 12 months after the outbreaks.
Financially speaking, there are a lot of risks and opportunities right now.