On March 9, 2020, we sent an update to our clients regarding Mariah Lee joining Blue Barn Wealth, the state of the market, and COVID-19. You can access a pdf of this full update here. A summary of the full article is below.
New Team Member
We would like to announce that Mariah Lee joined Blue Barn Wealth today. We are very excited to have Mariah as part of our team and know that she will make a significant contribution to the future of our company. Mariah joins us from Fidelity Investments where she was working as a High Net Worth Relationship Advocate. We look forward to each of you getting to know her better.
Market Update
11 years to the day from the market bottom of the great recession, we experienced the biggest one-day drop in markets since 2008. The S&P 500 dropped by 7.6% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 7.8%. The below chart shows how each of the 11 sectors that make up the S&P 500 faired today. The Energy Sector was down by over 20% due to the price war announced between Saudi Arabia and Russia which caused oil prices, as measured by Brent Crude, to drop by 24% ending the day at $34.36. The Financial Sector dropped by over 10% partially due to the fall in interest rates, which is a large source of its revenue.
Covid-19 Stimulus Update
In a news briefing this afternoon, President Trump stated that he will be announcing fiscal stimulus measures intended to counteract the potential impact of the Coronavirus tomorrow. This is in addition to the emergency 0.50% interest rate cut the Federal Reserve already made. For us the takeaway from these announcements is that the United States Government is willing to take large corrective actions to help stabilize the economy during this period of uncertainty. We will wait to see if these policies prove effective but view this as a potential catalyst to limit the drop in the equity markets.