Stocks post monster gains

Wall Street stocks skyrocketed on Friday, recouping a chunk of Thursday’s steep losses in a monster rally as President Donald Trump officially declared a national emergency over the coronavirus outbreak, providing fearful investors with momentary comfort. Amid new infections and a rising death toll, the president outlined a broad, multi-pronged $50 billion effort designed stave off a pathogen that’s currently ravaging Italy and threatens to overwhelm Europe. In addition to student loan relief — and using the opportunity provided by low oil prices to “fill up” America’s strategic reserve — the initiative will loosen up regulations to allow hospitals to “do what they want” to combat the virus. “This will pass, this will pass through, and we will be even stronger for it,” Trump said. Friday’s rally — which saw benchmarks spike by over 9% — provided a brief respite from a bloody 3 week streak that culminated on Thursday, when the S&P 500 and Dow posted their biggest percentage-drop since 1987’s notorious “Black Monday.” The surge was Wall Street’s biggest since the 2008 crisis.  The S&P 500 has gained or lost at least 4.89% every session this week, and plunged enough during the intraday session to trigger “circuit-breakers” to help prevent further extreme losses twice. Each of the three major indices entered a bear market this week, falling more than 20% from recent highs. Amid these concerns, the response from policymakers escalated throughout the week, with the Federal Reserve adding further stimulus on top of its half-point interest rate cut last week with the announcement of an additional injection of $1.5 trillion in liquidity operations, along with purchases of Treasury securities across the yield curve. Elsewhere, Trump announced a month-long travel ban on inbound travelers from Europe, and said he would offer billions worth of low-interest loans to small and mid-sized businesses getting hit by the coronavirus.  Nick Note: Can i now say i told you so?