It’s the second anniversary Wednesday of the lows set in the U.S. stock-market plunge triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Stocks have stumbled in 2022, but the S&P 500 SPX has more than doubled, rising 101.65% through Tuesday’s close, since the March 23, 2020, pandemic bottom at 2,237.40 — it’s best two-year rolling performance since 1937, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The chaos wasn’t confined to stocks. The Treasury market nearly seized up. The U.S. dollar DXY soared amid a global scramble for the world’s reserve currency. The Federal Reserve moved quickly to backstop credit markets and worked with other central banks to expand or establish dollar swap lines, moves that were credited with helping to steady the ship. Those moves were in addition to the Fed’s extraordinary monetary policy easing measures and fiscal stimulus from Congress.
Among individual stocks, Tesla Inc. TSLA led the way higher, up 1,044% over that stretch. The next closest gainer was Devon Energy Corp. DVN with a gain of 881% .