Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 Price Analysis:
- The February-March sell-off had reverberations throughout global markets, with the Dow[1] down by as much as 38.5%, the S&P 500[2] off by as much as 35.9% and the Nasdaq[3] 100 giving back as much as 32.1%.
- For almost a full month, buyers had control with US equities jumping-higher, aided by some massive government stimulus programs that helped to ease worries.
- Yesterday’s carnage in oil[4] markets continued for another day and with both the supply and demand sides of the equation remaining worrisome, there may be continued collateral effects as market confidence wanes.
Dow, S&P 500 Push Back Down After a Month of Rebound
It was almost a full month of calm after stocks bottomed around March 22nd[5]; and in the time since the S&P 500 went on to gain as much as 32.6% from the March lows up to the April highs.
The driver for the prior bearish run was fairly obvious[6]: Widespread shutdowns in the effort of flattening the curve and stemming the spread of the novel coronavirus. As this was happening, a few potentially problematic areas began to flare with risk aversion, key of which were US Treasuries and the US Dollar[7], which gained as much as 8.8% from the March low up to the March high.
It appeared, at the time, that the big fear was that an already highly-leveraged global economy may see collateral effects from the near-certain economic slowdown that would emanate from the coronavirus-related shutdowns, and with the mayhem in oil markets yesterday[8], that fear may be making a stark reappearance into the equation. And while a portion of
