Oakworth Capital Bank’s Investment Committee predicted the 2nd Quarter of 2021 would expand on the 1st Quarter’s strong growth and market returns. Frankly, given the tailwinds in the US economy, this was an easy prediction which we, thankfully, got right. It WAS a strong quarter in both economic activity and market returns.
In no uncertain terms, things seem to be a little more normal during the quarter. More Americans got their vaccinations. COVID-19 cases fell substantially. Economies opened more fully, and people returned to their offices after 12 months of Zoom meetings and working remotely. All the while, the Federal Reserve kept monetary policy extremely accommodative, and Washington kept trying to find even more ways to spend money it doesn’t have.
Something dramatic would have had to happen to not have an excellent quarter. Fortunately, nothing did.
We hope you enjoy our analysis of what happened during the quarter in the markets and the economy, and why we think it happened. Further, we also hope you find our current investment strategies and predictions for the upcoming quarter to be insightful. So far, and it is hard to believe we are already halfway done with it, 2021 has been a wild ride and we still have two more quarters left!