- Equities Rebound Over 10%
U.S. equity markets posted their largest weekly gain in over a decade after President Trump signed an unprecedented $2 trillion stimulus package designed to blunt the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 contagion. The Senate-originated recovery act was approved by the House on Friday and signed into law later in the day. Stocks pared stronger weekly gains on Friday’s news that active U.S. infections surpassed that of China and Italy. Through the weekend, the U.S. active caseload jumped to 143,055, while Italy’s tally rose to 97,689, and China’s total edged higher to 82,198. - Weekly Performance
For the week, the Dow Industrials surged 12.84%, the S&P 500 rallied 10.28%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rebounded by 9.06%. On Friday, the S&P 500 gave back over 3% of its earlier 13.6% surge over the prior three days, while ending the week back above its 2018 lows. Despite last week’s rebound, the benchmark index is still down 21% year-to-date. - Largest-Ever U.S. Stimulus
The stimulus package provides approximately $500B in loans and other assistance for major companies, $350B in aid for small businesses, and up to $1,200 in direct payments to middle- and low-income Americans, plus $500 for each child. Hospitals will receive $117B in aid and unemployment insurance would expand by up to $600/week in addition to state-specific benefits. - Utilities Gain the Most
All 11 major sector groups posted gains last week with Utilities(+17.68%), Industrials (+15.43%), and Real Estate (+15.41%) up the most. Healthcare (+8.12%), Consumer Staples (+6.65%), and Communication Services (+5.50%) gained the least. - Treasury Yields Weaken
U.S. Treasury prices advanced last week after the Federal Reserve said it was reducing its daily Treasury purchases. The move came after the Fed expanded currency swap lines with other central banks, ramped up cash offered to the repurchase-agreement markets, and debuted a series of tools to beef up credit markets. The yield on 10-year Treasury notes fell by 16.9 basis points to 0.68%. U.S. WTI crude oil prices tumbled by 1.1%to end the week at $21.51/barrel. Lastly, the U.S. Dollar Index sank 4.4%, the biggest weekly drop since 1985. The dollar fell due to less stress to the credit markets, corporate repatriation of funds, as well as the overall increased human toll from the coronavirus.
- The S&P 500 had a peak-to-trough decline of 33.9% from its February 19 record high to the recent low on March 23. That is slightly more than the average decline of 30.5% in the last ten U.S. recessions. Last week’s unemployment report had a record 3.3 million initial jobless claims and that has effectively confirmed a recession has arrived. Markets discount future events and a recession was already priced in before the unemployment report was released last Thursday. The good news is that a lot of bad news has already been reflected in equity prices, so it may take a severe shock to push stocks even lower than the recent trough
This report is created by Cetera Investment Management LLC.
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Glossary
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a price-weighted average of 30 significant stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ.
The S&P 500 is an index of 500 stocks chosen for market size, liquidity and industry grouping (among other factors) designed to be a leading indicator of U.S. equities and is meant to reflect the risk/return characteristics of the large cap universe.
The NASDAQ Composite Index includes all domestic and international based common type stocks listed on The NASDAQ Stock Market. The NASDAQ Composite Index is a broad-based index.
The Russell 2000 Index measures the performance of the small-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe and is a subset of the Russell 3000 Index representing approximately 10% of the total market capitalization of that index. It includes approximately 2000 of the smallest securities based on a combination of their market cap and current index membership.
The Russell 3000 Index measures the performance of the largest 3,000 U.S. companies representing approximately 98% of the investable U.S. equity market.
The Russell Midcap Index measures the performance of the mid-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe. It includes approximately 800 of the smallest companies in the Russell 1000 Index, based on a combination of their market cap and current index membership. The Russell Midcap represents approximately 31% of the total market capitalization of the Russell 1000 Index.
The Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index, which was originally called the Lehman Aggregate Bond Index, is a broad based flagship benchmark that measures the investment grade, US dollar-denominated, fixed-rate taxable bond market. The index includes Treasuries, government–related and corporate debt securities, MBS (agency fixed-rate and hybrid ARM pass-throughs), ABS and CMBS (agency and non-agency) debt securities that are rated at least Baa3 by Moody’s and BBB- by S&P. Taxable municipals, including Build America bonds and a small amount of foreign bonds traded in U.S. markets are also included. Eligible bonds must have at least one year until final maturity, but in practice the index holdings have a fluctuating average life of around 8.25 years. This total return index, created in 1986 with history backfilled to January 1, 1976, is unhedged and rebalances monthly.
The Bloomberg Barclays US Corporate High Yield Index measures the USD-denominated, non-investment grade, fixed-rate, taxable corporate bond market. Securities are classified as high yield if the middle rating of Moody's, Fitch, and S&P is Ba1/BB+/BB+ or below, excluding emerging market debt. Payment-in-kind and bonds with predetermined step-up coupon provisions are also included. Eligible securities must have at least one year until final maturity, but in practice the index holdings have a fluctuating average life of around 6.3 years. This total return unhedged index was created in 1986, with history backfilled to July 1, 1983 and rebalances monthly.
The Bloomberg Barclays US Municipal Bond Index covers the USD-denominated long-term tax-exempt bond market. The index has four main sectors: state and local general obligation bonds, revenue bonds, insured bonds, and prerefunded bonds. Many of the subindicies of the Municipal Index have historical data to January 1980. In addition, several subindicies based on maturity and revenue source have been created, some with inception dates after January 1980, but no later than July 1, 1993. Eligible securities must be rated investment grade (Baa3/BBB- or higher) by Moody’s and S&P and have at least one year until final maturity, but in practice has a fluctuating average life of around 12.8 years. This total return index is unhedged and rebalances monthly.
The MSCI All-Country World Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization weighted index that is designed to measure the equity market performance of developed and emerging markets. The SMCI ACWI consists of 46 country indexes comprising 23 developed and 23 emerging market country indexes. The developed country indexes include: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The emerging market country indexes included are: Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and United Arab Emirates.
The MSCI EAFE Index is designed to measure the equity market performance of developed markets (Europe, Australasia, Far East) excluding the U.S. and Canada. The Index is market-capitalization weighted.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is designed to measure equity market performance in global emerging markets. It is a float-adjusted market capitalization index.
The MSCI Europe Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure developed market equity performance in Europe.
The MSCI Pacific Index captures large and mid-cap representation across five Developed Markets (DM) countries in the Pacific region. With 470 constituents, the index covers approximately 85% of the free float-adjusted market capitalization in each country.
The Bloomberg Commodity Index is a broadly diversified index that measures 22 exchange-traded futures on physical commodities in five groups (energy, agriculture, industrial metals, precious metals, and livestock), which are weighted to account for economic significance and market liquidity. No single commodity can comprise less than 2% or more than 15% of the index; and no group can represent more than 33% of the index. However, between rebalancings, group weightings may fluctuate to levels outside the limits. The index rebalances annually, weighted 2/3 by trading volume and 1/3 by world production.
The S&P GSCI Crude Oil Index is a sub-index of the S&P GSCI, provides investors with a reliable and publicly available benchmark for investment performance in the crude oil market.
The S&P GSCI Gold Index, a sub-index of the S&P GSCI, provides investors with a reliable and publicly available benchmark tracking the COMEX gold futures market.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is crude oil produced in Texas and southern Oklahoma which serves as a reference or "marker" for pricing several other crude streams. WTI is the underlying commodity of the New York Mercantile Exchange's oil futures contracts.
The Cboe Volatility Index® (VIX®) is a key measure of market expectations of near-term volatility conveyed by S&P 500 stock index option prices.
The U.S. Dollar Index is a weighted geometric mean that provides a value measure of the United States dollar relative to a basket of major foreign currencies. The index, often carrying a USDX or DXY moniker, started in March 1973, beginning with a value of the U.S. Dollar Index at 100.000. It has since reached a February 1985 high of 164.720 and has been as low as 70.698 in March 2008.