Today’s headlines are like those we read in 2008-09, the difference being that we are fighting a virus that has caused world economies to partially shut down. This is not a permanent shut down of our economy caused by bad business plans or financial imbalances.
What should investors think? It depends on whether you are an investor with a long-term perspective or an emotional investor who moves with daily events. 2019 spoke to both investor types.
Year to date the S & P 500 index is up 20.54% through the third quarter, which might cause us to get excited. We may ask why investors aren’t pouring money into the equity markets.
We thought it might be interesting to look back at how we arrived at 18.54% in the S & P 500 year to date.
Investors’ heads must be spinning after the fourth quarter sell-off driven not by fundamentals but primarily geo-political events such as government shut downs, potential firing of the Federal Reserve head, Brexit and tariffs, just to name a few.