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By Staff Reporters

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A disastrous month of March is what Charles Schwab has just experienced.  An avalanche of bad news fell on the firm. The stock fell 33% between Feb. 28 and Mar. 31. At the end of February, Charles Schwab’s shares were trading at around $77.92. A month later the price is now $52.38. The difference translates to more than $47 billion in market capitalization wiped out in just one month. According to Bloomberg News, this is Charles Schwab’s worst month since the October 1987 stock market crash, known as Black Monday. That day, the Dow Jones index lost 508 points, a decline of 22.6% and the largest daily decline in a stock market index at the time. Only the drop by 76% of the Icelandic stock market in 2008 would exceed this record.

VERSUS

With the first quarter of 2023 behind us, and despite wild fluctuation due to continuous rate hikes from the Fed and an unexpected bank panic, stocks and bonds managed to turn in a pretty, pretty, pretty good performance for the quarter. The S&P 500 gained 7%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4%. But if the market’s metaphorical report card is impressive, tech companies were indisputably the honors students.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource/Title/082610254

The LEADERS

Wall Street rewarded tech companies’ layoffs and other cost cutting measures, giving tech stocks a resurgence. And with ChatGPT becoming a household name, investors have their money on generative AI as the next big bet. As of last night:

• The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite index rose a whopping 18% since January 1, its largest quarterly gain in two years.
• Stocks of the tech giants leading the charge in AI-powered search, Microsoft and Alphabet, are up 20% and 16%, respectively.
• Bitcoin surged 72%.
• CITE: https://www.amazon.com/Comprehensive-Financial-Planning-Strategies-Advisors/dp/1482240289/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418580820&sr=8-1&keywords=david+marcinko

The LAGGARDS

Bank stocks were a delight for short sellers, who made $2 billion betting against the sector in the past three months.

• Smaller institutions were most badly injured by the bank panic: The SPRD S&P Regional Banking ETF, which consists of non-behemoth banks, had more than a quarter of its value wiped out in Q1.
• Large banks are feeling the pinch of rising interest rates: Global merger and acquisition deals suffered the biggest first-quarter decline since 2001, according to data analyzed by the Financial Times.
• CITE: https://www.amazon.com/Comprehensive-Financial-Planning-Strategies-Advisors/dp/1482240289/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418580820&sr=8-1&keywords=david+marcinko

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ORDER: https://www.routledge.com/Comprehensive-Financial-Planning-Strategies-for-Doctors-and-Advisors-Best/Marcinko-Hetico/p/book/9781482240283

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Filed under: "Ask-an-Advisor", Alerts Sign-Up, Funding Basics, Glossary Terms, Investing | Tagged: Bitcoin, Bloomberg, DJIA, DOW, Dow Jones, ETFs, Financial Times, MSFT, NASDAQ, S&P 500, Schwab, SPDRs |