Oakworth Capital Bank’s Investment Committee predicted the 1st Quarter of 2021 would set the tone for the markets for the remainder of the year. This had nothing to do with the NFC winning the Super Bowl or Joe Biden winning the White House. It had everything to do with the rollout of vaccinations, reopening of local economies, accommodative fiscal and monetary policies, lots of liquidity in the financial system, and the promise of yet another massive relief package. If all of these things came to pass, the future would look bright for economic activity, corporate profits, and therefore stock prices.
Fortunately, our first looks in the rearview mirror suggest the 1st Quarter delivered on just about every issue, as the economy looked ready to take off at the end of March.
We hope you enjoy our analysis of what happened during the quarter in the markets and the economy, and why it happened. Further, we also hope you find our current investment strategies and predictions for the upcoming quarter to be insightful. So far, 2021 has already been a wild ride, and we are only a quarter of the way done.