March was a terrible month in the investment markets, capping off a pretty rough quarter. The first three weeks of January looked as though 2020 was going to be business as usual. Then entered the coronavirus (CV). The world’s equity markets slowly drifted downward through most of February, and then came March.
For the month of March, the Dow, S&P 500 and NASDAQ lost 13.62%, 12.35 and 10.03%, respectively. March was also a month for the record books, a month during which both a bear and a bull market occurred. At one point, all these U.S. equity indices reached 20%+ loss, signaling a bear market. But March 24 – 26, the Dow rallied nearly 4,000 points, or 21.3%, creating a bull market in the middle of a bear market.