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Stocks close out best quarter since 1998, clawing back most Q1 losses

The Dow and S&P 500 advanced more than 16 percent and the Nasdaq spiked more than 30 percent in the second quarter

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June 30, 2020 at 4:02 p.m. EDT
The “Fearless Girl” statue stands in front of the New York Stock Exchange in New York City. Wall Street wrapped up its best quarter in decades Tuesday. (Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images)

Stocks overcame weeks of uncertainty, social unrest and a resurgence in coronavirus infections to finish one of Wall Street’s best quarters in history.

Two of the three major stock indexes are still down for the first six months of the year, and Federal Reserve chairman Jerome H. Powell on Tuesday cautioned that the economic recovery remains “extraordinarily uncertain” in the face of the stubborn coronavirus.