Stocks rebounded sharply this week even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread rapidly in the United States. The movement toward passage of the nearly $2 trillion fiscal stimulus package and unprecedented actions from the Federal Reserve (Fed) helped stocks snap back. Slowing growth in new cases in some countries provided reassurance.

After tumbling 34% from its February 19 record high through the March 23 low, the S&P 500 Index gained over 10% through Friday, including the biggest three-day rally since the 1930s. The Dow Industrials rallied 21% off its lows, causing some to call its bear market over, before pulling bac

With the major stock market indexes all entering a bear market this month, it’s no surprise that stocks have stolen most of the spotlight. However, actions taken by the Federal Reserve (Fed) to support what may be considered the safest part of the bond market, US Treasuries, may actually have more lasting implications for investors’ portfolios.

From February 19 through midday March 9, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell an incredible 125 basis points (1.25%), briefly reaching an all-time low of just 0.31%. In fact, the 14-day relative strength index RSI on the 10-year yield, a technical measure of momentum, was mor

Weekly new jobless claims were reported this morning, and to no one’s surprise they rose to levels thought unimaginable just a few weeks ago. As shown in the LPL Chart of the Day, 3.3 million people filed new claims for unemployment benefits in the week ending March 21, almost 5 times the previous high of 695,000 set in 1982.

“The personal and economic disruptions represented by the latest new claims number are staggering,” said LPL Chief Investment Officer Burt White. “This is a genuine human crisis, and a robust response from the Federal Reserve and Congress seems appropriate. Unfortunately, we do expect

We’ve been monitoring the details in our Road to Recovery Playbook closely over the past few weeks, looking for ways to opportunistically take advantage of the sharp pullback in equity prices. The Playbook has five important factors we are scrutinizing in order to be more aggressive with equity allocations. One of those factors emphasizes whether we believe there are limited sellers remaining. For clarity on that particular factor, we reviewed recent statistics from Morningstar on fund flows, and we found some interesting observations.

As shown in the below chart, investors have acted as if money markets are king, essential