The history of the stock market going back to 1926 shows that returns in months when presidential elections took place don’t reflect any consistent patterns.
Q3 2020 Market Review
The impressive recovery from the Spring’s Covid 19 led recession continued in Q3 amid social unrest, increasingly chaotic political theatre, and ongoing struggles to bring the pandemic under control. Economic indicators have shown extended improvement with the unemployment rate dropping to 8.4% in August, an improved labor force participation rate, rising industrial production, increasing retail sales, and strong spending on food and beverages. However, the rate of gains in many of these areas has began to wane, signaling a possible slowdown in the recovery.
Tax Planning Opportunities in a Shemozzle (aka 2020)
2020 can be described with many adjectives. Chaotic, unpleasant, snafu, and train wreck are just a few colorful terms (fit for print) I’ve heard to describe this year from, well, Hell. Maybe dumpster fire is the metaphor that came to mind for those that watched Jennifer Anniston struggle to extinguish a small fire Jimmy Kimmel set to kill germs on an Emmy award envelope earlier this week.
Fortunately for the winner, the envelope survived the inferno, and all was well. At least in Hollywood. For those of us that don’t make a living pretending to be other people, there may also be some lemonade to be made from the 2020 lemon, too.