In Choppy Week for Markets Stocks Finish up 0.2%

Equity markets were choppy over the past week. And while impacted by the stalemate in Washington over the fiscal stimulus and the surging COVID-19 cases in Europe and the US, the Standard and Poor’s Index finished the week essentially flat; up 0.2%.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 is spreading at a faster rate in the US. While cases are spreading in nearly every state, this surge since early September is being driven by a new set of about 20 states. Wave 1 was NY tristate, wave 2 was FL, CA, AZ, TX, or F-CAT, and as the chart below shows, these other 20 or so states are driving wave 3.