The U.S. stock market has certainly hit some hard times recently. 

Certified Financial Planner Tim Heisterkamp with Journey Financial says the S&P 500, the market’s range of 500 companies, saw three times in the past week hit a seven-percent decline in trading, which forced trading to stop for 15-minutes each time. He points out the economy is in a bear market right now due to volatility.

“Well the market is heywire because the market is volatile right now. We’re having these huge, violent swings (with) 2,000 points up one day and 2,000 points down the next (day). The volatility has really increased and that causes a lot of confusion. The bear market, we’ve had bear markets before, we’ll come out of them. The market has always come back up, but right now (it’s) trying to get a handle on the volatility from day to day.”    

Heisterkamp notes a bear market happens when stocks retreat 20% from the all-time high, which Heisterkamp says as of Tuesday morning, the market was at 31-percent. He adds, factors like the coronavirus have certainly driven the large swings in the market, and that has created cheaper stock prices. 

Sources say the stock market rose by 1,000 points in the Dow Jones Industrial Average after reports from President Donald Trump wanting to give each American $1,000 checks and the Federal Reserve cutting back on interest rates to zero-percent to spur the economy.