2020 was a year investors will not soon forget. A pandemic, a recession, the end of a more than decade-long bull market (and the beginning of another bull market), all-time highs for US stock indices, lockdowns & working remotely, a tense U.S. presidential election cycle, unemployment spiking more than 10 percentage points in a matter of months—the list could go on for some time. And after all of it, an above average calendar year return for U.S. stocks.
As soon as this weekend, the Food and Drug Administration is set to grant emergency approval to greenlight a COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech. Within hours of the approval, millions of doses of the vaccine will be ready for distribution as each state determines who gets priority. Although initial doses will be available for those that the states deem to be most at risk, the majority of the US population will likely need to wait until the spring or summer of next year before getting the vaccine.
Last week certainly felt like a rollercoaster as news outlets waited until Saturday morning to declare Joe Biden as the president-elect, a full four days after Election Day in the US. Although party control of the Senate will likely be decided in January, with two run-off elections in Georgia, the last week provided a powerful reminder of the importance of staying disciplined.
In a year marked by uncertainty, it only makes sense that 2020 ends with a US presidential election.
Given the recent outperformance for U.S. stocks vs. International stocks over the last decade, RWM’s Portfolio Management Committee (PMC) recently met to discuss the appropriate allocation to U.S. and International stocks.1