The average monthly return in the S&P 500 for March has been a gain of 1.13% with positive returns occurring 64% of the time. The worst March since 1945 was in 2020 with a decline of -12.5%, while the best March ever was in 2000 with a gain of 9.67%.
Investors that buy emerging market funds are inadvertently overexposing themselves to China. Chinese stocks currently make up 33.5% of the MSCI Emerging Market Stock index while Chinese bonds make up 43% of the JPMorgan Asia Credit Index.
The IRS recently hired 5,000 staffers. Despite this, the agency is still under-equipped to service the 170 million individual tax returns. Only 13% of callers were able to get a person on the line to answer their questions last year, up from 11% in 2021.
Over the past 50 years there have been 7 recessions. During those recessions, fixed income (ex: bonds) performed best with an annualized return of 7.7%, while international stocks performed the worst with an annualized return of -10.6%.
MFS - "Beyond the News"
WSJ- "China’s Power in Emerging Markets Creates Headache for Global Investors"
Barrons- "5 Tips to Make Filing Your Taxes Easier This Year"
WSJ - "Which Investments Do Best—and Worst—in a Recession"
