Stocks Just Had Their Best Quarter Since 1998

It followed the worst quarter since the financial crisis
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jun 30, 2020 3:58 PM CDT
Stocks Just Had Their Best Quarter Since 1998
A woman wearing a mask passes a sign for Wall Street, Tuesday, June 30, 2020.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Wall Street closed out its best quarter since 1998 with more gains Tuesday but still well below the record high it reached in February, before the coronavirus pandemic ground the economy to a halt and millions of people lost their jobs. The S&P 500 gained 1.5%, bringing its gain for the quarter to nearly 20%. That rebound followed a 20% drop in the first three months of the year, the market's worst quarter since the 2008 financial crisis. "It's the first time you've had back-to-back (quarters) like this since the 1930s," Willie Delwiche, an investment strategist at Baird, tells the AP. "It's pretty unprecedented."

Thee S&P 500 gained 47.05 points to 3,100.29 on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 217.08 points, or 0.9%, to 25,812.88. It had briefly been down 120 points. The Nasdaq composite climbed 184.61 points, or 1.9%, to 10,058.77. Technology, health care, and financial companies powered much of the market’s broad gains Friday. The buying accelerated after a report showed stronger-than-expected improvement in consumer confidence this month. "Broadly speaking, the market is reacting to economic data that is better than expected," says Brent Schutte, chief investment strategist at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management.

(More stock market stories.)

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