Last week was another great period for stocks. We joked about a possible "V" bottom in recent weeks, but (so far) that is the shape the major indices seem to be tracing out. We have likened the recent decline to events during the pandemic and quoted Mark Twain: "History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes." The indices have made tremendous progress in a very short period, but we note that some of the best short-term advances have turned out to be bear-market rallies. The above brings us to the current situation, and we have very good comparisons to the pandemic, to times when we were emerging from a bear market, and to rallies in a bear market. No one said forecasting the future was going to be easy! In nine days, the S&P 500 has surged 10.3%, the largest nine-day run since October 2011 (at the end of a nasty correction and during a volatile period). The current gains also were surpassed by the pandemic recovery as well as in March and July of 2009, at the end of the financial crisis. That said, we had similar gains in the fall of 2008, and that was prior to the drop into 2009. On the bull side, the S&P 500 has retraced more than 61.8% of the correction, there have been breadth thrusts, the daily moving-average convergence/divergence (MACD) has turned bullish, and we got a buy signal from the weekly Bollinger Bands when price fell below and then recaptured the lower band. The index is just under its 50-week average at 5,687 and the 200-day is at 5,746. A break over the March 25 high at 5787 would complete a 950-point inverse head-and-shoulders pattern and likely would lead to all-time highs. (Mark Arbeter, CMT)

Ranked by assets and deposits, Capital One is one of the largest banks in the U.S., with top-tier national businesses in credit card and auto lending and a retail and commercial banking presence in the New York, Metro D.C., and the Louisiana/Texas markets. Capital One's mix of loans is about 49% card loans, 24% consumer loans, and 27% commercial loans.

The major benchmarks are up roughly between 2%-3% at midday. President Trump has tempered his comments saying that he does not intend to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. He also suggested that the triple digit number he mentioned for tariffs for China will not stick and will likely be lowered. Corporate earnings are pouring in. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note is 4.33%. Oil is at $62 per barrel. Gold is down.

Capital One is a diversified financial services holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia. Originally a spinoff of Signet Financial’s credit card division in 1994, the company is now primarily involved in credit card lending, auto loans, and commercial lending.