Despite major stock market gains over the past few weeks, a recent poll of investors has found that the majority believe the rally is a mirage, much as a man dying of thirst in the desert will sometimes spot an oasis, said CNBC. This is according to the Bank of America Fund Manager Survey, which found 68 percent of respondents characterizing the last few weeks as a "bear market rally," also known as a "dead cat bounce" or a "sucker rally." Whatever the name, it would seem that fund managers believe this is but a temporary reprieve from the pandemic's economic chaos, and that soon we will return to our regularly scheduled madness.

Previous analysis has suggested that traders are writing off 2020 entirely and are investing instead with an eye toward what they believe will be valuable once the recovery begins. This, however, can be seen as a sort of survivorship bias, where people make predictions based on what's been successful while ignoring all the other failures along the way. The Wall Street Journal highlighted one such investor, Ariel Investments, which expanded its holdings in the media sector on the belief that once the pandemic is under control, these companies will come roaring back. But another factor could also be that there are just more people buying stocks now as prevailing economic conditions have made other types of investments less attractive, thus increasing the amount of money chasing equities.

Regardless of the reason, stocks began this week in a strong position, especially compared with last week. As of 12:11 p.m. today, however, some of those gains had been lost, said CNBC. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had lost 48 points, although the S&P 500 remained up by 0.1 percent and the Nasdaq outperformed its peers by growing by 0.6 percent.