Tag: bear market

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NOW It’s An Official Bear Market. Some Thoughts…

It’s official, the U.S. stock market has been in a bear market since it’s all-time closing high on February 19, 2020. Yesterday, the U.S. market had it’s worst day since Black Monday 1987 (market lost over 22% in a single day).

  • This is the fastest retreat to a bear market from an all-time high in history taking just 16 trading days.
  • This ends the bull market that began with the cycle low on March 9, 2009 for an eleven year run and 400% price appreciation. That run makes it both the longest and strongest bull market on record!
  • The S&P 500 is down about 27% from its 2/19/2020 all-time high as of yesterday’s close, which is a level first seen on August 7, 2017 essentially wiping out 2.5 years of appreciation.
  • The market would have to climb over 36% from yesterday’s close to get back to the all-time highs.
  • For contrast, the foreign stock market (MSCI All Cap World Index) has been in a bear market since January 26, 2018 and is only up about 60% from the March 9th, 2009 lows.

Yesterday, sentiment hit EXTREMELY low levels with CNN’s Fear Greed Index at a record low of just 1.

Continue reading “NOW It’s An Official Bear Market. Some Thoughts…”

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They Say It’s A Bear Market but It’s Not Really…Yet

Lots of articles out today claiming we are now officially in a bear market, but that’s not really true…at least not yet.

Technically, a bear market is at least a 20% decline from a peak (using closing prices). I’m not a huge fan of that definition since it’s a bit arbitrary, however, it’s widely used so we’ll stick with it to be consistent with the rest of the industry and financial media.

Yes, today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed more than 20% lower than it’s all-time high closing price from 2/12/2020. However, the DJIA is only made up of 30 stocks. I have no idea why people are so intent on following the DJIA when it’s a tiny sliver of the U.S. stock universe let alone the global stock universe.

In any case, the S&P 500 still has not technically met the 20% threshold. Neither the global stock market (MSCI All Cap World Index) nor the broader U.S. stock market (Russell 3000) have met that threshold either although all are very close. So, for now, the bull market that began in U.S. stocks back on March 9, 2009 is still in tact.

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Fastest Correction In History…And The Importance of Financial Projections

Last Friday I wrote a market commentary to reiterate my concerns about market valuations but primarily focused on the fact that some technical (short-term) indicators were hitting historical extremes implying the potential for short-term problems in the market.

Last Thursday the S&P 500 closed at $3,386…an all-time high. Today the S&P 500 closed at $2,978 for over a 12% loss in a week. That’s a truly historic move. It’s the fastest correction in history for the S&P 500 and the fastest for the Dow since 1928 just a few months before the Great Depression. The Dow and the S&P 500 are on track for their worst weekly performance since the Great Financial Crisis in 2008. Continue reading “Fastest Correction In History…And The Importance of Financial Projections”

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Market Update – Only Two Other Times in History

The rally that began around Christmas Eve continued with strength through last week.

It’s been such a strong rally that U.S. large company stocks (as measured by the S&P 500 index) even eclipsed the prior record high from last September…admittedly, an event of which I was skeptical.

Specifically, on September 21st the S&P 500 set a new intra-day high at $2,940.91. However, last Wednesday the S&P 500 touched $2,954.13 before closing down to $2,923.17. As I write this commentary on May 6th, the S&P 500 is trading around $2,910.

Now, unfortunately, the S&P 500 was the only major index to set a new high. U.S. small company stocks (Russell 2000) are still down over 8% from their August 31st record. The global stock market more broadly, including foreign developed and emerging markets (MSCI All Cap World Index), is still down over 6% from it’s all-time high set almost 16 months ago on January 26th, 2018. Yes, the global stock market is still technically in a bear market.

Here is the interesting part, when reviewing one of the most reliable valuations metrics available from John Hussman, we find that the U.S. stock market has experienced current extremes only two other times in history (1) 1929: on the eve of the Great Depression and (2) 2000 – on the eve of the Dot Com Bubble burst. Neither of those events ended well, and I don’t expect the current dislocation to end well either. Continue reading “Market Update – Only Two Other Times in History”

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Bear Market Rallies in Context

The stock market is experiencing quite a rally this month. So, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the last five bear markets to check (a) if rallies have been common within past bear markets, (b) how long bear market rallies typically last, and (c) the average magnitude of bear market rallies.

Executive Summary: Every single one of the last five bear markets going back to 1973 included at least one rally of 10% or more before the market fell further. The average bear market rally since 1973 has been about 15% and lasted about 1.5 months on average. The rally we’re currently experiencing has produced about a 12.1% increase over the last three weeks.
Continue reading “Bear Market Rallies in Context”