Quarterly Commentary: June 2020

Work from home (WFH) has now become a common everyday expression, especially in the second quarter of this year. The use of technology at home has propelled several tech stocks to market capitalizations of over $1.5 trillion. With WFH, former commuters are saving approximately one hour per day and by shopping online, they are saving an additional half hour per day. This time savings has allowed for home improvements such as painting walls and trim, which translates into sales at home improvement stores. Cooking at home with lockdowns has decimated the restaurant industry but developed some great new chefs.

Market volatility has increased substantially. The S&P 500 has moved 1% up or down on more than 50% of the trading days this year. Just in the second quarter, 38 trading days saw this movement. The historic average is just 13 trading days. In our opinion, volatility is here to stay into the elections.