The 24th and 25th days of March 2020 were two rare consecutive “green” days for the US markets since the COVID-19 sell-off began almost a month ago. From a low point of over -30% from the peak, the S&P500 was up a huge 9.4% on the first green day the expectation of the US Congress […]
When the markets are under extreme stress, things can and do happen on Sunday nights. Back in September 2008, Lehman’s default and Merrill Lynch’s running into Bank of America’s arms for rescue took place on a Sunday night, US time. A week later, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were named bank holding companies, allowing them […]
Yesterday was the worst one-day in the US stock markets since 1987. To have an index almost 10% down in a single day is a very rare event. How do we think about rare events then, in relation to our investments? The first popular framework of thought is to look at history. But let’s use […]
To say that the stock markets have been volatile against the evolving global COVID-19 situation is an understatement. As of that is not enough, the failure of OPEC talks over the weekend of 7-8 March and subsequent oil price drops have added fuel to fire (pun intended). Moves of more than 4% in the S&P500 […]
What are the regrets of fund managers and advisers who are still in the profession today, when they think of 2008-2009? Overnight, US equities ended sharply lower in the Thursday trading session, with S&P 500 finishing down for a sixth straight session yesterday. This brings the index to -12% from its peak on 19 Feb […]
Every February, the Singapore Department of Statistics releases the Key Household Income Trends. We had that release today, 20 February 2020. A common response to this report is that of feeling rather underwhelmed but yet without surprise. All employees know that increments are incremental. Even then, 2019 household income growth was yet a shade weaker […]
