Uber (UBER) Stock Hits New All-Time Low

If you're looking for a real market-devastating event, look no farther than the COVID-19 coronavirus. It's hit everything from tech to travel, wrecking supply chains, crippling demand, and castigating stock prices. Uber (NYSE: UBER) proved no exception, as trading today saw the company hit all-time lows, with a little recovery to follow.

Uber Throws a Rod in the Exchanges

As bad as it was for Uber today, some recovery was seen, though not even enough as of this writing to bring the stock back above its closing price from yesterday. Yesterday, it closed at $26.24—already starkly close to its all-time lows—and earlier this morning, the stock dropped to a straight $23, establishing not only a new 52-week low but also a new absolute low for the stock.

The stock did recover somewhat, reaching a high for trading so far around $24.62, but even that wasn't close to the close. It also couldn't hold that high for long, either, as the stock started to drop after striking that high point. The last time the company had seen lows even close to this point was back in November of last year, where the company hit an intraday low of $25.58.

It Wasn't Exactly Alone, Either

Uber need not feel like a failure, here; the sell-off in Uber stock was just part of a much, much larger sell-off. The S&P 500, for example, was down 8.3% at one point, while the Dow Jones lost 9.2%.

The cause of much of this selling seems to trace back to the coronavirus; while President Trump took to the airwaves last night with a plan to address the matter, putting up a complete travel ban from Europe and a few other measures, much of the market seems to think the president's remarks didn't go far enough for their tastes, prompting another wave of selling.

With the coronavirus now officially a pandemic by the World Health Organization's standards, concern over the disease is rising, and consumers are shifting their lifestyles to reflect. Uber had actually warned last week—by virtue of its Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission—that a pandemic would likely do some damage to its bottom line.

Uber Fights Back Against Coronavirus

To Uber's credit here, it's not just simply taking the coronavirus on the chin, shrugging at the market as if to say “What can you do? We don't control disease vectors.” Instead, it's being remarkably pro-active and doing pretty much everything to the inherent limits of its operation to keep things going.

One of the biggest moves was an announcement that the company is planning to suspend the accounts of both drivers and riders who have coronavirus, and are actively working with public health agencies to determine who should be shut down from the service. Uber will be using the data that it's collected as part of the sign-up process—full names, phone numbers, even email addresses—in a bid to help out on that front.

Just to make it even better, those drivers and delivery people who lose out on Uber account access won't be simply left high and dry as some may have feared. Uber plans to offer these users “financial assistance” for up to two weeks. While this likely doesn't cover the whole period that a person could be infectious—reports from the Annals of Internal Medicine say that the virus can have an incubation period of up to 11 days—it's certainly a step in the right direction.

Making the Best of a Bad Situation

Granted, Uber isn't in the best position here. It's intimately connected with the travel industry, which is taking a pasting right now. It's directly undercut by a growing number of policies that are having workers telecommute as much as possible. Even for those traveling in their local area, not too many are eager to jump in a car that's already been filled with who knows how many straight-up sick people beforehand. All these factors and more add up to a market where “taking an Uber” sounds like a recipe for catching a disease that has a non-zero chance of killing you outright.

The good news here is that Uber is actively pursuing countermeasures. While these may only be of limited value right now, the reputational value and potential marketing fodder they'll represent in the future is likely substantial. When a crisis struck, Uber was there, doing everything in its power to protect its customers. That's worth a lot. When COVID-19 is behind us—hopefully soon—we'll be able to look back at Uber and take it that much more seriously, which could bode well for its stock price. Assuming, of course, it survives the short term