In Markets, the Spring of Our Discontent Is Happening
A cruel April put an end to many pandemic-era expectations. With sentiment this negative, more big adjustments can be expected.
April marked a brutal adjustment in post-pandemic expectations.
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Great poetry can lead to some inaccurate cliches. Any number of winters are dubbed a “winter of discontent,” for example. And then there is the notion that “April is the cruelest month,” the opening line from T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland.” It’s trotted out every year, even though April tends not to be cruel. For the stock market, it tends to be one of the kindest months. History’s big stock market selloffs have mostly come in the second half of the year. Remarkably, 2022 was the worst April for the S&P 500 since World War II: