Extraordinary? Remarkable? Unprecedented? It's hard to pick just one word to characterize capital markets in 2020. It was a year of record highs, record lows and first-evers.
It was a year marked by one of the steepest and deepest stock sell-offs in memory, followed by one of the quickest rebounds in history. Bond yields sank to all-time lows, gold shot above US$2,000 per ounce for the first time, and West Texas Intermediate crude oil (WTI) traded at incomprehensible negative prices. Undoubtedly, 2020 will be most remembered for the COVID-19 pandemic that roiled global economies and played an important role in what would normally have been expected to be the year's top story – the US presidential election.
The year is perhaps best viewed as two distinct periods – the shock and the rebound.
2020 Year in Review
