In early March, before the impact of the COVID-19 was fully understood, I penned an article suggesting that both corporate profits and S&P 500 earnings were suggesting the "bear market wasn't over." To wit:
"Profit margins are probably the most mean-reverting series in finance, and if profit margins do not mean-revert, then something has gone badly wrong with capitalism. If high profits do not attract competition, there is something wrong with the system, and it is not functioning properly." - Jeremy Grantham
At that time, the impending recession, and consumption freeze, was only starting,