I accidentally looked at my 401k today, but learning from the 2008 recession, I didn’t have a knee jerk reaction. They say that in a market crash, the worst thing you can do is sell stocks or change stuff in your 401k.
The market has been sharply dropping for the last five days so far in worries that the Coronavirus is spreading faster than anyone had hoped.
Global equities have been selling off around the world all week as investors fret about the spread of the virus.
The Dow Jones dropped 1,191 points, or 4.4% in its worst one-day point drop in history. This is coming off of another two days of around 1000 drop each day.
However, this is not necessarily a worst case scenario, because it’s still not considered a “bear market”, which is defined as 20% or more below the most recent peak.
Companies continue to warn that they won’t meet their first quarter earnings targets. Microsoft announced that late Wednesday. Goldman Sachs said in a report Thursday that it now thinks US companies will generate zero earnings in 2020.