Winter 2020 Quarterly Commentary
Coming into 2020, many investors and analysts were expecting increased market volatility given it was a presidential election year. On top of that, the prior year delivered stellar returns with the S&P 500 Total Return Index up 31.49%. With that backdrop, investors were unnerved and many contemplated selling their holdings and going to cash. Not very long into the year, news broke out of a virus in China, but the U.S. markets shrugged it off as an isolated event and markets continued forward to make new highs. It was not until it was announced that the virus was turning up in Europe and people infected had no direct contact with anyone from China that then the markets began to realize this was not an isolated event.