As Dow wipes out over 3 years of stock-market gains, here’s a warning about calling the bottom (Marketwatch)

How much worse can it get?

That’s a question many investors are undoubtedly asking themselves after a week of historic volatility that saw stocks suffer another pummeling and drove the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its lowest close since December 2016 as the global COVID-19 pandemic promises to push the world into recession.

After all that, some investors might feel a strong temptation once the market finally shows some stability to declare that the lows are in. But some Wall Street veterans have a word of advice: Don’t!

“First, let’s acknowledge that none of us can predict when the market will bottom,” said Brian Levitt, global market strategist at Invesco, in a Friday note.

“The number of new COVID-19 cases will likely need to peak before we get there. That’s a question for the epidemiologists to answer and a challenge for Americans and global citizens to take social distancing and/or isolation seriously,” he wrote.

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