Q1 Was a Wreck

Tale of the Tape: Q1 Round-Up Edition

Good evening folks. The first quarter is in the books and it was multi-vehicle wreck. The S&P 500 fell just over 20%, oil fell close to 70%, and the 10 year treasury yield fell below 1% for the first time since the founding of this great nation.

Energy stocks lost half their value and financials fell over 30%. Small caps were destroyed with the Russell 2000 falling 31%.

Below, we share the numbers and give them some context. First, here’s today’s performances:

S&P 500	2,584	-1.60%
Nasdaq	7,700	-0.95%
Russell 2000	1,153	-0.45%
Dow Jones	21,917	-1.84%

S&P 500 Quarterly Returns: An Historical Perspective

Michael Batnick shared this chart today on his excellent blog that places Q1 2020 in context. He posted it before the close – the Q1 loss turned out to be 20% as the market fell further late in the day.

It was a terrible quarter, the worst since 2008 and the 5th worst since WWII. We’ve seen nothing like this pandemic in 100 years.

Record Lows to Record Highs

Q1 2020 will also go down as the quarter we went from record low unemployment to record highs. This jobless claims chart from just last week is an early charts of the decade candidate for sure:

via Macrotrends

Q1 Sector Performance

Here’s how the US sectors fared for the first quarter. None closed higher. Technology was the best of a bad bunch. Energy… what can we say? Get your sh*t together.

Q1 Global Stocks Performance

Here’s how the country ETFs closed out Q1 2020. China was best while Brazil screwed the pooch.

Q1 Commodities Performance

Here’s a look at the major commodities Q1 performance. Crude had its worst quarter of all-time. *sad trombone*

Here’s a look at the Crude quarterly chart. Quite the ride 🎢

For a great read on oil, check out Gregor Macdonald’s epic Oil Fall from earlier this month.

Insider Purchases

Hey, amid all this carnage, here’s one optimistic visualization for ya. This one is from Macro Charts, who overlays the S&P 500 and Corporate Insider purchases. Insider purchases are now at the second-highest level ever. Insiders are eating their own cooking…