Thoughts in Charts: Recession Vs. Returns

Officially, a “recession” is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative Gross Domestic Product (GDP). GDP attempts to measure consumer spending, business investment, government spending, and net exports. Usually, we think of strong GDP as passing through to strong stock market conditions, but GDP and the equity market don’t always move in the same direction. In a few weeks, we will get official numbers on a massive quarter-over-quarter GDP drop; however, the U.S. stock market is looking past the current situation in anticipation of higher economic output in the second half of the year and beyond.

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