We are another month into the COVID-19 pandemic and what a whirlwind it has been! So much has changed over the past month in not only our day to day lives, but also in the stock market as we’ve seen a much-needed rally. The S&P 500 was up over 12% in April and about 30% from the lows on March 23rd. (YCharts) While investors have been excited to see this move higher, we don’t believe that this rally has necessarily sounded the “all-clear” for stocks. As such, we have used this move higher to what we believe is our advantage and have continued to try to reduce risk within portfolios.
Despite stocks rallying, we saw historically weak economic data throughout April. We’ve highlighted a few data points below that demonstrate the impact of shutting down most of the economy and sheltering at home