If you are an investor, you likely have had a tough year.  After closing at 1,427 on May 19, 2008, the S&P 500 Index has generally gone one way – down.  The closing mark for the Index on March 9th was 677.  This is a stunning 53% drop!

If you foresaw this and moved appropriately, hats off to you.  For the rest of us, though, it’s been painful.

Among their benefits, stock markets, as measured by various indices, act as leading indicators of what is expected from the underlying companies.  Since the overall economy impacts business results, the market is also a measure of where investors see the economy going (not where it is now).   To this end, the U.S. market started its fall as the asset “bubble” burst, bank failures were witnessed, more were expected, and a recession seemed inevitable.  Even though the U.S. economy grew the first half of 2008, investors, and by proxy the market indices, anticipated problems ahead.

If you haven’t stopped watching, the U.S. stock markets has gone dramatically upward in the past seven trading days.  From its low, the S&P500 Index has returned 17% to investors in this very short period.  Did we hit bottom on March 9th?  Is this the start of a significant move upward?  I’m not so brazen to make this call.  But some government officials and market experts are expressing cautious optimism about the future.  The outlook seems to have improved a bit from one month ago.

We have repeatedly explained how the value proposition for MVaaS solutions improves in a tough economic environment.  Still, it would be a welcome development to see the economies of the world improve in the 2nd half, and return to growth in 2010.