US recession declared, may already be over

Markets were mixed on Monday.

US stocks rose, with the Nasdaq Composite rising 1.1 percent to an all-time high and the S&P 500 rising 1.2 percent to close just 4.5 percent from its high.

Asian stocks were also higher, with the Nikkei 225 jumping 1.4 percent.

However, the STOXX Europe 600 slipped 0.3 percent.

Ironically, US stocks performed well on a day the National Bureau of Economic Research declared that the US economy entered recession in February.

The recession is not expected to last though. Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, said that while this is “almost certainly the deepest recession since” the war, “it is almost certainly also the shortest recession”.

“From the market’s perspective, the economic impact of COVID is basically over. We still may see spikes in cases, but it will be difficult politically to shut down economies again,” said Bill Callahan, an investment strategist at Schroders.