After a relatively calm start to the month of June, last Thursday stocks experienced the worst one-day selloff since mid-March. The sell off was prompted by less optimistic (although not necessarily negative) comments from the US Central Bank (the “Fed”) as well as reports of increased Coronavirus cases in the US.

News headlines can be quite dramatic when markets experience big moves, using phrases like “surge” and “plunge.” (Imagine replacing the up and down arrows on elevators with these words!) Often, the effect on your portfolio is not as dramatic as the headline numbers might suggest. This is because your portfolio doesn’t typically mirror the market indexes. Diversification is a key component of our planning; holding bonds and other asset classes helps maintain portfolio values during market selloffs. If you remember our “Investing 101” discussions this will all sound familiar.

Stocks and futures markets have rebounded since Thursday's drop, possibly indicating that the markets feel last week’s selloff was a bit overdone. There is still much uncertainty about the path of the virus and timing of a vaccine, and the degree to which various parts of the economy recover as the gradual reopening rolls out, so it is likely that markets may continue to be somewhat volatile as we move through the summer months. It’s important to remember that we have put together a portfolio to weather the storms as they come and that your fund managers are working hard on your behalf to navigate these waters.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, or would like to talk about what this has meant for your portfolio specifically please don’t hesitate to reach out.