Cheery Despite COVID-19 Concerns For the past couple of months, I've been pounding the table to ignore the talking heads and follow the trends. As I said above, the trend is your friend. And we're in a profitable three-month stretch for the markets. It's the annual winter rally, when investors are buoyed by holiday cheer and optimism about the future abounds. This rally begins in October and pushes through the end of the year. And since the start of October, the Dow is up nearly 3%, the Nasdaq Composite is up 7.2% and the S&P 500 Index is up 8.5%. That's even after Black Friday's freak-out over the spread of the omicron variant. The Dow surged more than 5.5% in October and hit all-time highs this month before flattening and eventually flash crashing on new COVID-19 concerns. Now, it's important to keep in mind that volatility isn't so unusual around this time of the year. You see, the markets are typically flying higher on candy cane-flavored hopes, but uncertainty is the Scrooge of gains. We saw this in 2018 when the markets collapsed as the trade war between the U.S. and China reached a boiling point. It was the worst December since 1931. And it was a bitter end to the worst year for the markets since 2008. Any concerns over the supply chain - like we potentially have this year - can trigger a cascading effect. Though, as we've seen for a quarter-century, the Dow and the other major U.S. indexes more often than not keep their heads above water during December. There's one month left in 2021. That's it. And historically, these final weeks (albeit emotionally delicate at times) have been some of the best for investors. There will be a lot of talk about inflation, the supply chain and even a potential government shutdown. These will trigger short-term volatility. But as we've seen time and again, the markets finish December with a flourish. That means there's still plenty of fuel left in the tank for even more holiday cheer - regardless of the latest COVID-19 variant. And there are likely even new all-time highs ahead! Here's to high returns, Matthew P.S. With new all-time highs in store, click here to learn how you can profit from the best month for the markets. |
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Keep a civil tongue.