Investors with a longer time horizon may not be running and hiding amid the market’s March sell-off.
At least not yet.
“We see a range of emotions among our clients, from nervousness to a focus on the long term,” Charles Schwab (SCHW) CEO Rick Wurster told me and Madison Mills on Yahoo Finance’s Catalysts (video above). “If we look specifically at what our clients are doing, we look at things like margin activity — it’s a good pulse for what our more active traders are doing. And our level of margin has stayed roughly the same over the last month, and our margin clients have actually bought equities in the last week. So I think clients are generally hanging in there at the moment.”
Wurster took over as CEO of Schwab in January after serving as its president.
He arrives at an important juncture for markets and the iconic wealth manager.
Fresh economic data for consumer confidence from the Dallas Fed survey has painted a picture of increasingly cautious consumers and businesses. Walmart (WMT) is seeing its lower-income shoppers fret once again about inflation, new research reveals. The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed an economy continuing to battle inflationary headwinds before the onset of any tariff-related pressure.
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The market is moving violently as it aims to price in a first-half growth slowdown.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI), S&P 500 (^GSPC), and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) are each down 5% in March alone. Led by plunges in large-cap tech names such as Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA), the Nasdaq is down the most in March, with a 5.2% drop as investors sell off risk.
On the year, the Nasdaq is down nearly 8.6%, the S&P 500 is off by 4.8%, and the Dow 2.8%.
“I think there’s a variety of [investor] concerns. I think you’ve seen the market turn or worry about growth… When you look at investors broadly, I think the biggest concern on their mind is just a softer growth picture,” Wurster said.
After dealing with challenges from migrating TD Ameritrade clients to Schwab’s platform for much of 2024, the company began to stabilize in the fourth quarter. Results were also helped by strong trading activity ahead of Election Day and following President Trump’s win.
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Fourth quarter revenue rose 20% year over year. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) improved 49%. Trading revenue advanced 14% from the prior year.
Revenue was up 4% year over year for full year 2024; adjusted EPS was up 4% as well.
