Each quarter we like to share our insights and observations about the state of the market.
The third quarter of a rather eventful 2020 saw the stock market’s continued recovery from the March lows earlier in the year. Equities climbed higher, with the broad U.S. indices soaring to new all-time highs before paring back some gains in September. Overall, it was the second consecutive quarter of notable market advances.
When the second quarter began, the stock market was just beginning to recover from one of the worst and quickest declines in history. By the end of June, U.S. stocks registered healthy gains, closing out a more upbeat quarter that saw strong advances across all equity markets. The S&P 500 Index posted its best quarter since 1998 with a 20.54% positive move, offsetting most of the pandemic-related drop from February’s highs to March’s lows.
Global stock prices suffered a sharp first quarter fall as the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a global economic shutdown. This pandemic-driven selloff, heightened by turmoil in the global oil markets, was unprecedented in its speed and severity. From February 19th to March 23rd, the U.S. stock market lost over 30% of its value.
2019 turned out to be a good year for the U.S. economy and an excellent one for investment returns with stocks bouncing back from a difficult 2018. From the beginning of the year, January’s rally helped set the tone in which the market responded to every downturn with a more sustained upswing. Along the way, stocks kept setting records – 35 of them for the S&P 500 Index, 22 for the Dow Jones Industrial Index and 31 for the Nasdaq.
The third quarter seemingly packed a year’s worth of market action into three fast moving months. Regardless of your stock market, interest rate or economic viewpoint, there was something for everyone in this fluid and volatile quarter. It began in bullish fashion as most of the major stock benchmarks jumped to all-time highs in the first weeks of July.
