Daily Market Brief
News, analysis and commentary
By Logan Robertson and Thomas J. Connelly, CFA, CFP®
May 1, 2020
The S&P 500 closed down -2.86% today finishing April up 9.42%. The Dow finished the month up 8.07%. International Developed and Emerging Markets returned 3.53% and 3.55%, respectively, for the month of April. Small and value stock market factors have been on a tear upward for the past two weeks, making up large portions of the losses from February and March. After making up a lot of lost ground relative to the S&P500, small and value still underperformed the S&P 500 by -1.64% and -1.64%, respectively for the month; returning 8.13% and 7.65% for the month of April. Market volatility has returned over the past two days, with the VIX jumping up 9.46% to 37.38.
In the Fixed Income markets, US 10Y Treasury yields fell 11.7 bps this month to 0.637%. Yields on the 1Y Treasury increased 5.1 bps to 0.175%. Corporate Bond yields fell over the month, signaling decreased expected credit risk, and perhaps confidence in the efforts of the Fed and Treasury’s lending and corporate bond-buying programs. Investment Grade corporate bonds and high yield bonds yield 2.780% and 8.040%, respectively. The difference between B and CCC rated debt is quite wide: 8.380% vs 18.090%. Yields on the riskier debt barely moved this month.
Gold prices increased 4.91% in April, now up to $1,699.06 per ounce. After the collapse of oil prices into negative territory earlier this month, WTI Crude Oil is back up to $19.75 per barrel – down -8.18% for the month.
Continuing Jobless Claims, announced yesterday, are at 17,992,000. Initial Jobless Claims were 3,839,000 for this week.
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