
Market Performance
The first quarter of 2020 was a painful reminder that markets don’t always go up. After a near eleven-year bull market run that began March 9, 2009, the S&P 500 Index plunged 33.9% between the market peak on February 19 to the most recent price bottom on March 23.[1] Over this four-and-a-half-week stretch, we saw two of the worst single-day declines since the Great Depression began in 1929, selling off -9.5% on March 12 and -12.0% on March 16.[2] The COVID-19-related uncertainty led to the swiftest market meltdown on record at 22 days.[3] However, the final returns for the quarter weren’t as bad as one might think, due to the positive market returns running up to the peak and the significant 15.7% rebound off the bottom. The S&P 500 Index ended the quarter down -19.5 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was off a comparatively better -13.9% and the blue-chip, 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average was down slightly worse at -22.6 percent.[4]
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