Market Insights: Market Commentary

• Canadian and U.S. markets moved steadily higher throughout the week, perhaps demonstrating investor confidence that the recovery from the COVID-19 outbreak could be swift.
• The Canadian economy lost 1.01 million jobs in March, while the U.S. announced weekly jobless claims of 6.6 million. The U.S. Federal Reserve announced an additional $2.3 trillion in aid, timed to coincide with the release of the jobs number.
• Saudi Arabia and Russia were expected to agree to cut oiloutput after American oil production began falling. Regardless, the price of oil continued to decline, as many expected these measures would not make enough of a dent in the current supply glut.
• The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide surpassed 1.5 million, a 50% increase week over week. While social distancing and lockdown measures remained active in much of the world, China ended its lockdown of the city of Wuhan, where the virus first emerged.
• The S&P 500 stock market just capped off its best week in terms of performance since 1974.

Has anything changed regarding how I should view my investments?
We continue to stand by the advice we have been sharing since this downturn began – your long-term investment plan was built on solid footing and to be able to overcome market shocks such as the one brought about by COVID-19. Some of the most turbulent markets in history have bounced back significantly in short order, with those able to withstand the emotions of such declines reaping the rewards. This is not to say that we know exactly how this specific event will play out, but it does bring some comfort knowing that markets have been here before, showing impressive strength in the years that followed. The table below demonstrates this ability to recover from large declines over periods of one, three and five years, with examples from 1930 to 2008. Perhaps most impressive is the average result when all of these moves are combined, which skews overwhelmingly positive.

Source: theirrelevantinvestor.com

Sources: CI Investments Inc., Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Bloomberg Finance L.P., The New York Times Company, CNBC LLC, Yahoo! Canada Finance and Thomson Reuters Corporation.