April Market Update

Economic trends apparent so far in 2022 continued in April and worldwide markets tanked.  Interest rate increases, spurred by a more hawkish Fed, continued punishing bonds and stocks alike. The Dow and the S&P 500 endured the worst monthly returns since March 2020, and the Nasdaq suffered its biggest drop since October 2008.

The strength of the consumer is now being called into question, as earnings reported by the likes of Apple and Amazon showed that the consumer may not be able to bail our economy out of increasing energy prices and supply chain concerns.  While it’s difficult to tease out the true trends of the report, GDP advanced estimates seem to show this shrank economic activity for 2022 with the GDP shrinking 1.4% (annualized) in the first quarter of 2022.