Investors Sell Everything

Today was another terrible day for the market. The Dow closed below 20,000 for the first time in three years. The S&P 500 was down “only” 5.18%, but the index managed to finish the day just above Monday’s close. That could be a good sign.

Today was unusual in that investors were selling everything, including areas we normally think of as safe havens. The yields on Treasury bonds maturing more than three years out all rose by more than 10 basis points while the yields on anything maturing in less than six months dropped to nearly 0%.

Since March 9, the yield on the 30-year Treasury has risen from 0.99% to 1.77%. Gold and crude oil both dropped sharply today. Oil fell 24% for its third-worst day on record. It hit an 18-year low.

The small-cap Russell 2000 index fell more than 10%. The TED Spread closed at a 10-year high.

On our Buy List, Hormel Foods (HRL) made a new high. Not on our Buy List, so did Walmart (WMT). Shares of Stepan (SCL) managed to close higher again today. This time, they rose by 2.50%.

Posted by on March 18th, 2020 at 6:14 pm


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