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Bloomberg
Its last day may have been a washout, but the first quarter just took its place among the best of the lengthening bull run for US stocks. Even with a 0.2 percent decline, the S&P 500 Index surged 5.5 percent in the three months ended March 31, the biggest advance since shares jumped 6.5 percent at the end of 2015. More than 350 companies rose in the quarter as gains that began just before Election Day swelled to 14 percent.
While equities have lost the momentum of February, when investors anticipating President Donald Trump growth programs pushed the S&P 500 higher for six straight weeks, March’s final five sessions still notched the best return since Valentine’s week. Energy producers led the advance, rallying 2.2 percent for the biggest increase since early December while consumer stocks, commodity companies tech shares each climbed more than 1 percent.
March just missed becoming the fifth consecutive up month for equities, a span that encompasses the entirety of the Trump bump that has reinvigorated the rally that turned eight years old on March 9. Equities are jumping as corporate earnings bounce back and investors pour money into shares in anticipation of Trump promises including lower taxes and greater public spending.
“Confidence returns not only to the stock market, but also to the economy,†Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “The carrot is still out there, with the carrot being tax reform and infrastructure spending. Till those things come to the forefront, it’s still buy the rumor.â€
Friday’s session reprised a pattern that has held for more than a month in which a week’s final hour saw exaggerated volatility, this time to the downside. The S&P 500 erased a gain in the session’s last 30 minutes. Banks and energy companies paced the retreat, offsetting gains in real-estate trusts and utilities that came as Treasury yields slipped. Also today:
FMC Corp. rose 13 percent, the most in the S&P 500. The pesticide maker agreed to acquire DuPont Co.’s crop-protection assets and DuPont agreed to acquire FMC’s health and nutrition business.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3 percent to 20,663.22, trimming its advance since January to 4.6 percent. Russell 2000 Index rose for a seventh day, the longest streak since November. It has now completed the retracement of all its losses from March 21, when concern began to build that President Donald Trump’s health-care bill might falter.