It’s been a fabulous start to the year for investors — as long as you ignore all those simmering worries about a possible recession.
“The 2020 recession calls, whether they’re right or wrong, have permeated all individual investor mentalities,” she said. But on Jan. 4, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell told a conference for economists that the central bank would be flexible in deciding when to raise rates. It was an immediate balm for investors, and the S&P 500 leaped 3.4 per cent that day. It kept climbing until hitting a peak on March 21, the day after the Fed said that it may not raise rates at all this year.
Technology stocks again did much of the work, but the gains were widespread. Funds specializing in small stocks or large, energy companies or real estate, all logged gains. The largest mutual fund by assets, Vanguard’s Total Stock Market Index fund returned 12.8 per cent for the quarter through Wednesday, on pace for its best performance since a 12.9 per cent return at the start of 2012.