A Better April

After a stomach-turning March, we got a little reprieve as the markets rebounded nicely in April. We had good gains with Stocks and the Bond market also seemed to get back to normal last month. Some of this has to do with the global effort to contain COVID-19 and with the success in many areas with flattening the curve. When I last wrote a newsletter, we were starting to see lower numbers coming out of Europe. I'm happy to report that we continue to see less cases per day out of Italy, Spain, France and Germany. That has led to optimism across the globe and some buying on the market again. We are seeing good numbers from some provinces here in Canada and are now being presented with plans of opening things back up. I'm sure that's been welcome news for many.

Throughout this crisis, we have tried to stay positive and to focus on good news like what I mentioned above. That hasn't always been easy, especially living in McKenzie Towne here in Calgary. This seems to be one of the worst hit areas in Western Canada. We have a Care Home not far from our house which is dealing with a major outbreak. It's been very strange for us to see so many things closed down and so many people wearing masks to protect themselves. The world has changed so much since February when the number of COVID-19 cases were under 100,000. As I write this, we are sitting at 3,300,0001 cases globally. Unfortunately, I'm quite sure that it will be closer to 4,000,000 by the time you get this as countries like Brazil and Russia are now starting to add thousands of cases every day. The UK isn't out of the woods by a long shot and I hate to report that the US is still adding around 25,000 new cases per day. That's the same number I reported on my last newsletter. My last email told clients that the USA had gone over 350,000 cases. As I write this, they stand at approximately 1,100,0001. We may have a long way to go but we will get through this. We can see countries in Asia and Europe safely opening their economies back up and slowly getting back to normal. We will get there too.

We have been as busy as ever, just doing a lot of things electronically these days. I've got pretty familiar with Zoom and Microsoft Teams Meetings. While it has been frustrating not being able to get out and see people, it has been nice to connect with so many of you online! Our biggest adjustment outside of meeting clients in person, is having the girls at home... All the time… Natalie has become a full-time teacher on top of my assistant! She is wearing a lot of hats these days for sure. In order to give her a bit of a break, we have decided not to book any appointments the week of May 17th to May 23rd. Hopefully, I can give Natalie a little break and spend a lot of time with the girls.

Be smart and stay safe out there,

Bryce A. Borden


1Worldometer - https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/