It was a short trading week, but a lot happened – because of this it also served as a good reminder.
2020 started off just as 2019 ended with record closing highs and the Dow Jones up 330 points. A few hours later reports surfaced of an airstrike in Iraq in which the U.S. killed Iran’s top commander. This resulted in the futures selling off 300, interest rates falling, oil prices moving higher and gold as well. This span of 24 hours should be a reminder that the future is unknown, and that diversification remains the ideal strategy.
It’s easy to abandon diversification when U.S. stocks seemingly never go down but on a day like Friday, when the unforeseen headline hits, being allocated to bonds or alternatives helps protect some of that downside.
For the week ahead, we monitor the situation in the Middle East and what the next moves are in the U.S.-Iran conflict. For economic data, the main data point is the jobs report on Friday.
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