Since November’s letter, Top of Tops, I’ve discussed the unfolding progress of the new bear markets in both stocks and bonds. While recognizing the risks of an impending bond market crash, we instead were treated to the beginning of a stock market crash.
On March 23rd the Dow closed at 23,533, essentially even with the November 1st close. But what a wild five months it has been for stocks. Almost straight up to the all-time high of 26,617 January 26th, to a 12% sell off in a mere ten days to a new closing low as of this writing.
I don’t just see possible horrific losses for stocks unfolding, I see probable horrific losses for stocks unfolding. This is why I have referenced the 1987 stock market crash (down 22% in one day, down 40% over eight weeks). The seemingly impossible has happened before. Who knows, this time it may be worse.
Conventional wisdom may direct investor’s funds towards bonds if such a stock market panic unfolds. That would be a mistake in my opinion. While stocks attempted to bounce since their 12% sell-off and have failed, bonds did rally. But this rally happened in the midst of a larger bond market sell-off. With an overall downtrend for both stocks and bonds, if both do get aligned and move strongly lower together the resultant fear could heighten concerns of a crash in financial asset values. (more…)
