Russell 2000 sprints ahead of other indexes
It was kind of a weird day in equity land. Perhaps due to traders becoming optimistic about smaller businesses starting to open up again, the small-cap Russell 2000 soared and left other indexes far behind.
The Russell doubling the return on the S&P hasn't happened many times since 1979. All of them have triggered since the year 2000.
The S&P managed to rise over the next few sessions every time but once, and even that was a small loss quickly erased. But because most of them triggered in 2000 or 2008, returns after the first week were questionable.
For the Russell, returns were worse.
That means the ratio between them usually suffered.
Bulls are mostly hoping that small-cap outperformance can continue. It's trying to turn up after a plunge, and it should be a good sign going forward. Historically, though, it's been tough to do so after such a big difference in returns like we saw on Monday.