A weekend's worth of troubling COVID-19 data bubbled up into heavy selling Monday morning – but, spurred in part by yet another market assist from the Federal Reserve, eventually turned into buying.
Much of the Sun Belt is experiencing rapid increases in coronavirus case loads, and North Carolina and Texas both registered record numbers of hospitalizations over the weekend.
However, investor sentiment improved as the day went on, and the major indices all headed into positive territory in the afternoon. Helping lift spirits was a Fed announcement that it would extend its bond-buying efforts from exchange-traded funds to individual issues.
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The Dow, which dropped by as much as 762 points early on, finished up 157 points, or 0.6% to 25,763. The S&P 500 Index finished 0.8% higher to 3,066. The Nasdaq fared even better, gaining 1.4% to 9,726. And the small-cap Russell 2000 bested them all, closing up 2.0% to 1,416.
The market's renewed volatility continues as it tries to digest a rapid multimonth rebound. "This is now one of the greatest surges off a major low ever," Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist for LPL Financial, writes about the gains since the March lows. "It is perfectly normal to see a drawdown of double digits after the initial surge weakens."
Last week, we stressed the importance of shaking loose weak holdings – such as these S&P 500 stocks that are sitting on shaky foundations – in the midst of uncertain markets. Billionaires, hedge funds and other institutional investors are doing exactly that.
We regularly look at the billionaires' top stocks for potential buy ideas, but the stocks they're selling can be equally educational. Some sales are clear votes of no confidence (but not all). Read on as we highlight 25 major stock sales by big-money investors this year, such as David Tepper, Carl Icahn and Warren Buffett, and examine the likely motives behind the moves.
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