The stock market ended a volatile week on a gloomy note Friday, with the three major U.S. indexes plunging as investors got tripped up in worries like inflation, the Fed’s fight against it and fears of a hard-landing recession.
As confidence got pummeled as well, financial experts recommended that investors not panic, but think about long-term strategies instead.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-2.82%
finished down 981 points, or 2.8%, to 33,811.40. Friday’s performance was the index’s worst daily percentage decrease since Oct. 28, 2020, according to Dow Jones Market data.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite index
COMP,
-2.55%
shrank 2.6% and the S&P 500
SPX,
-2.77%
lost 2.8%.
TGIF, indeed.
See also: ‘Waiting for the perfect moment may not be the best strategy’: 3 things investors should do right now as stocks tumble (again)
Of course, some rattled retail investors could have already said that’s where things have been heading.
Almost 44% of people say the market is moving in a bearish direction, according to the latest weekly sentiment gauge from the American Association of Individual Investors. That’s almost 14 percentage points above the 30.5% historical average on bearish sentiment in the ongoing tracker.
On the other hand, nearly 19% said they were bullish in the week ending April 20. That’s up from a 15.8% read one week earlier. But it’s been May 2016 since bullish feeling in the ongoing tracker hasn’t surpassed 20% for two straight weeks.
Meanwhile, six in 10 investors anticipate an increase in market volatility and seven in 10 say they worry about a recession, according to a poll Nationwide released earlier this week.
In the same poll, roughly four in 10 investors (44%) said they felt more confident in their ability to protect their finances in any upcoming downturn and 38% said they felt confident in their ability to invest in the stock market.
It’s not as if retail investors have some monopoly on the side-eyed view of…
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