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On Friday, Commonwealth's CIO provided an update on the coronavirus crisis, including how it has affected the economy and financial markets thus far. While case counts have gone up, the growth rate (a better indicator) has started to trend down in the U.S.

The Fed stepped up early and hard for the coronavirus crisis. It cut interest rates essentially to zero. It eased restrictions on banks to enable faster and more business lending. Plus, the Fed has taken unlimited measures to support the financial system as a whole, restarting programs from the last crisis to purchase bonds and inject money into the system.

In early March, we saw markets drop worldwide. In fact, the 7.5 percent decline on March 9—which, coincidentally, happens to be the 11th anniversary of the bull market—was the largest since 2008. With a total decline of almost 19 percent, in less than a month, this certainly looks like a crash—doesn’t it?

Last week was one of the worst in history for the stock market. With the Dow and S&P 500 now down more than 15 percent from recent highs (of only weeks ago!), fears are rising that this pullback might be the precursor to another crisis.

It is now clear that the coronavirus has escaped the attempted containment by Chinese authorities and has spread around the world. According to the World Health Organization, there are 79,331 confirmed cases, of which 77,262 are in China and 2,069 are outside of China (as of February 24, 2020). 

As we made our way through 2019, signs of softening economic conditions became increasingly apparent, even while consumer confidence remained high and job growth came in better than expected.

November was a great month for U.S. markets, with the S&P 500 up by 3.63 percent, the Dow up by 4.11 percent, and the Nasdaq up by 4.64 percent. All three indices are now up by more than 20 percent for the year.

Brad McMillan, Commonwealth’s CIO, recaps the market and economic news for October. It was a great month, with U.S. markets doing well and international markets doing even better. 

August was a tough month pretty much across the board, with politics rocking markets around the world. So, what should we expect for September? Let’s take a closer look. 

Yesterday, we saw the largest stock market drop of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 800 points (over 3 percent), an even bigger decline than we saw earlier this month. Plus, we are on track for the worst week of the year.