Today's trading saw a lift in global equity markets, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average increasing by over 500 points and the S&P/TSX Composit closing up 2.4%. The real story, of course, was oil, which rebounded sharply, with the price of WTI closing up 20%.

Today's headlines were dominated by a paradoxical piece of news: the price of oil has gone negative, briefly reaching -$37/barrel USD. But what does that actually mean? How is the price of oil measured? Can I buy all the oil in the world and lock in an enormous profit? What does this mean for the economy, in the near, intermediate, and long term? And why does this all revolve around Cushing, Oklahoma?

Today was a quiet day in the markets, and the first double (not triple) digit move in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in weeks. Today's trading followed the release of US initial jobless claims data, which indicated that 5.2 million Americans filed for unemployment last week.

The Bank of Canada last published a Monetary Policy Report on January 22nd. Although it came out just 84 days ago, it reads like a parchment scroll from antiquity. It does not include the words "COVID," "virus," or "outbreak." It predicts that growth in the Canadian economy will accelerate in 2020. To say the least, it was due for an update.

A month ago, we started recommending a basket of large, dividend-paying stocks that had reached impressive yields. A lot of people thought we were crazy buying into a market that was falling off a cliff, and in some cases they were right. The volatility this basket has exhibited since we recommended it is well above average.

Entering a week that the US Surgeon General warned would be "the hardest and saddest" in most American's lives, you might not expect a broad rally in global equity markets. But that's what we saw, with the Dow Jones Industrial Index gaining more than 1,600 points and the S&P 500 up more than 7%.

Last Thursday, we brought you news of what might have been the single worst economic datapoint ever published by a developed country. This week, that number has been more than doubled, as 6.6 million people filed for unemployment in the United States last week.

With Argentina under a national quarantine until at least the middle of April, many of our clients who previously funded their operations in Argentina locally are no longer able to produce revenue. These clients are covering the fixed costs of their operations in Argentina by using the Blue Chip Swap, which allows funds to quickly, efficiently, and safely be transferred into Argentina.

Today's trading saw strong gains for the major indexes. The Dow Jones Industrial Index closed up 1351.6 points, gaining 6.4% on the day. The S&P 500 closed up 6.2%, and S&P/TSX composite gained 1.8%.

This market rally could be a "relief" rally, or a headfake rally, the proverbial "dead cat bounce", or genuinely the capitulation point that the bull market to come will be referenced against. Which is it?

If you tuned out of the market at noon, you should check your portfolio again. After a calm morning, traders around the world decided that they need to risk-off for the weekend. You can understand the logic: two days is approximately twelve and a half years in today's market. Remember that it wasn't long ago that the Fed met on a Sunday to cut rates to zero.

Bailouts for the aviation industry are a hot topic right now. On one hand, companies like Delta are coming under fire for billions in stock buybacks over the last few years. On the other, commercial aviation is a huge part of North America's transportation infrastructure, and allowing it to crumble now would surely hamstring the post-Coronavirus recovery. A middle ground, bailouts from cash-rich private equity leviathans like Apollo Global Management, is an interesting scenario to think about.

Today, the Dow Jones Industrial Index fell below 20,000, a mark it first achieved on January 25th, 2017. To give you an idea of how dramatic this drop is, just six weeks ago "Dow 30k" hats were the hot commodity for millenials who wanted everyone to know that they work in finance. You can still buy those hats, although you can also buy "Dow 20k" hats at the same webstore and t-shirts that read "Panic at the Costco." Sometimes pop culture is our best market indicator.

Yesterday, in a highly unusual Sunday meeting of the US Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee, the FOMC announced a 100 basis point cut to its overnight target rate and $700 billion of quantitative easing. These extraordinary steps to provide liquidity and ensure continued functioning of the global financial system joined the Bank of Canada's decision to cut rates at an emergency meeting on Friday.

Market volatility is causing a sell-off in equities around the world. A combination of panic-selling from retail investors, margin calls, and forced redemptions is continuing to push stock prices lower and lower. Pushing stock prices lower has the effect of raising the yield on their dividends, which are listed on a dollars per share basis. We're seeing the dividend yields on some large-cap dividend-paying names reach extremely attractive levels, and we're reaching out with this opportunity.

Last weekend, the cartel that controls global oil production met to discuss cutting production in light of the global dip in demand. Those negotiations failed, and now Saudi Arabia and Russia (the two largest producers of oil outside of the United States) are instead engaging in a "price war," ramping up production to their highest levels ever. The effect on the price of oil, already brought down by the lack of demand, was dramatic:

As you are probably aware, Argentine currency controls are still presenting obstacles for businesses who need to send money into or out of the country. Global market volatility is making this need more urgent for most investors, who need to act decisively in these uncertain times.

The last few weeks have been a time of severe market volatility and we understand that this is a concern to our clients. Most importantly for our cash management clients, the Bank of Canada announced a 50 basis point cut to its overnight rate target, following the Federal Reserve's emergency meeting to lower its target range.

This morning, the Bank of Canada (BoC) announced a 50 basis point cut to the overnight rate target, the benchmark rate that all Canadian fixed-income is measured against. This leaves the overnight target rate at 1.25%, down from its previous level of 1.75%.

This morning, the US Federal Reserve held its first emergency meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) since 2008 and announced a 50 basis point cut to its main policy rate. This cut, which brought the target range from 1.50-1.75% to 1.00-1.25%, was in response to the turmoil in global markets observed over the last week and the obvious slowdown in economic activity caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.