April Flowers

​Following a dramatic downturn in the first quarter due to fears over the novel coronavirus, global stock markets rallied in April, spurred on by continued support for small business by the Federal Government, via the CARES ACT, and a slashing of federal-funds rate to zero by the Federal Reserve in the second half of March. 

​Below are returns for the month of April for major stock and bond indexes.  All return data provided by Morningstar.

Markets have a lot to digest.  First quarter GDP was down 4.8%, after adjusting for inflation, and over 30 million unemployment claims were filed in the past five weeks. 

​While it’s nice to see April flowers, given the troubling employment numbers and the lack of spending by US consumers, many economists are predicting May showers.