Investors in 2020 have witnessed two wild extremes crammed into about a six-month time frame. During the first quarter, panic and uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic sent the broad-based S&P 500 screaming to its fastest and steepest bear-market decline in history. It took less than five weeks for the index to shed more than a third of its value.
However, this was followed by the strongest and quickest rally from a bear-market bottom of all-time, with the benchmark index taking fewer than five months to recoup all of its losses.
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