LOS ANGELES – The lure of snapping up stocks at bargain prices has been too strong to pass up for many people, even as uncertainty over the coronavirus pandemic clouds the market and global economic outlook.
Stuck at home, but armed with online trading apps, individual investors helped drive the historic comeback for stocks since late March, despite a backdrop of historic job losses, forecasts of sinking corporate profits and a global recession due to the economic fallout from the outbreak.
The market’s rally, which accelerated in April as the Federal Reserve and Congress opened an unprecedented spigot of financial aid to prop up the economy and ensure trading on Wall Street didn’t skip a beat, has pushed up the S&P 500 about 26% higher