Total Failure of Leadership Drags Office Furniture Stocks to the Basement

It’s the coronavirus and it is not sparing any company. Hour by hour yesterday, all the previous gains in the shares of publicly held office furniture makers evaporated. It was the worst day on Wall Street since 1987, and much of the blame for the decline can be laid at the feet of our non-leader, Donald J. Trump.

The cost of his administrations’ failure to deliver the most basic prerequisite of pandemic response, say, widespread testing to track the disease’s spread is being bourn by many, including the employees and shareholders of our largest companies. The incompetence at even releasing legitimate numbers about testing is staggering.

To put it mildly, Thursday was a blood bath. Here are some of the results from JUST yesterday::

  • Interface down 25.92%

  • HNI down 11.88%

  • Knoll down 13.03%

  • Kimball down 9.84%

  • Dirtt down 14.20 Percent

  • Steelcase down 14.16%

  • Herman Miller down 15.61%

Herman Miller, Steelcase, and HNI closed within pennies of their 52-week lows. Knoll, Kimball, Interface and Leggett & Platt all hit new 52-week lows.

With offices of nearly every major corporation closing because of the pandemic, the prospect of a quick recovery in sales of contract furnishings seems to be problematic.

Meanwhile, the Dow futures point to more than a 400 point opening loss when the markets open this morning, following the markets’ worst day since “black Monday.”

Stay well, and wash your hands.