by William Henderson, Vice President / Head of Investments
Last week’s holiday-shortened trading week allowed markets to close the week with mixed results. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index both show negative returns for the week at -0.34% and -0.52% respectively, while the NASDAQ closed in positive territory at +0.31%. Year-to-date, the Dow has returned +8.3%, the S&P 500 +16.7%, and the NASDAQ Composite +44.0%. 2020 continues to provide investors with strong returns across the broader markets despite historic headwinds.

President Trump signed the $900 billion COVID-19 Stimulus Bill which eventually sends $600 to eligible Americans as part of the relief package. This recent stimulus package coupled with the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine and a willing and able FED providing market liquidity continues to fuel the strong economic recovery. These obvious tailwinds will be present in 2021 as well, and many economists are now predicting a strong GDP growth estimate for 2021. We talk more about this in our 2021 Outlook video above. Short trading days, second-string trading desks and actions like tax lost harvesting and window dressing by portfolio managers could move this week’s thinly traded markets lower even in the face of positive news. At worst, results will be confusing.