Last week, the third quarter of 2020 came to an end – and the fourth quarter delivered a doozy of an October surprise. President Trump has the coronavirus On Friday Americans awoke to the news President Trump had contracted COVID-19. Financial markets responded with relative equanimity. After a brief sell-off on Friday, major U.S. indices […]

Angela Bender, Certified Financial Planner and AMJ's Managing Partner, contributed to this article by Jessica Mathews, on Financial-Planning.com. CLICK HERE to read the article.

For four weeks, the U.S. stock market has sparked and sputtered like a campfire in light rain.

Today, pandemic-driven demand is providing fuel for the investors. The need for certain types of products and services has accelerated and innovation is creating new opportunities.

Investors weren’t happy with central banks last week. After the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell confirmed the economy is recovering more quickly than anticipated: “With the reopening of many businesses and factories and fewer people withdrawing from social interactions, household spending looks to have recovered about three-quarters of its […]

Last week, the Nasdaq Composite Index set another record.

So far, 2020 has been memorable for many reasons, not the least of which is the incredible speed at which some events have been occurring in financial markets. This year, we’ve experienced:

• The end of the longest U.S. stock bull market in history
• A global stock market crash
• The shortest U.S. stock bear market in history
• Multiple record highs for major U.S. stock indices

Stock markets in the United States retreated a bit last week.

U.S. stocks have been trending higher for months. Last week, they gave back some gains. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 3.3 percent, while the S&P 500 Index fell 2.3 percent, and the Dow lost 1.8 percent, reported Ben Levisohn of Barron’s.

August has been a good month for stock investors. At the end of last week, the S&P 500 Index was up 6.8 percent for the month. The Index is poised to deliver its best returns for the month since 1986, when it gained 7.1 percent, reported Financial Times.

The performance of U.S. stock markets is remarkable, in part, because, so far, company earnings – the profit that publicly-traded companies earn and report each quarter – haven’t been great in 2020. Earnings were down 31.9 percent during the second quarter of the year, reported FactSet. The decline in earnings reflected the impact of coronavirus closures.

You don’t have to look very far to see how quickly innovation changes our world. The greatest generation saw the advent of credit cards, power steering, and transistor radios. Baby Boomers remember the arrival of electronic fuel injection, audio cassettes, and an oral vaccine for polio. Gen Xers witnessed the emergence of the worldwide web (www), which has become a defining feature of modern life. Millennials and Gen Z saw the arrival of smartphones, social media, and video gaming competitions.

Sometimes change is gradual. Other times – like today – it occurs at an accelerated pace.

The shortest bear market in history is over.

The Nasdaq Composite and Standard & Poor’s 500 Indices finished at new highs last week. The stock market is considered to be a leading economic indicator, so strong stock market performance suggests economic improvement ahead.

There was a caveat to last week’s gains, though.