ClientFirst Financial Strategies
Financial Planning and Portfolio Management
If you look at the theory of relativity, then last week wasn’t so bad! Yes, all three of the major US stock market indices were down (i.e., DJIA: -0.20%, S&P 500: -0.20%, Nasdaq: -1.54%). However, on a relative basis, it wasn’t as bad as the past several weeks!
This past week was a doozy with all three major US stock market indices closing down (i.e., DJIA: -2.46%, S&P 500: -3.28%, Nasdaq: -3.93%). In fact, the month of April posted its worst showing for the S&P 500 since March 2020 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq since October 2008!
When there are more than two data points, it may indicate a trend! For the past three weeks (and a fourth for the DJIA), the US stock market indices have posted losses (i.e., this past week: DJIA -1.85%, S&P 500 -2.75%, Nasdaq -3.83%).
You know how children sometimes test your patience? That’s what we’re running into with the US stock market these days! This past week generated losses in all three major US stock market indices (i.e., DJIA: -0.27%, S&P 500: -1.26%, Nasdaq: -3.86%)
Although Friday’s US employment report appeared favorable, we had a mixed bag of results this week from the three major US stock market indices (i.e., DJIA: -0.12%, S&P 500: +0.06%, Nasdaq: +0.65%).
We have seen two consecutive weeks of gains in the major US stock market indices (i.e., DJIA: +0.31%, S&P 500: +1.79%, Nasdaq: +1.99%). As we all know, two data points do not necessarily make a trend.
Finally, the US indices had a week of positive returns (i.e., DJIA: +5.48%, S&P 500: +6.15%, Nasdaq: +8.18%), posting the largest weekly gains since November 2020! The question remains, “what caused it?”
Certainly, the atrocities in Ukraine have our utmost attention. It makes it easy to understand why all three major US stock market indices lost ground again last week (i.e., DJIA: -2.00%, S&P 500: -2.88%, Nasdaq: -3.54%), leaving the year-to-date results -9.34%, -11.79% and -17.90% respectively.
Thursday morning, per normal, the markets reacted violently to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but, surprisingly, rebounded to actually post slight gains in two of the three major US stock market indices for the shortened trading week (DJIA -0.1%, S&P 500 +0.8%, Nasdaq +1.1%).