https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-are-bonds-failing-to-act-like-a-safe-haven-as-stocks-sell-off-2020-03-18
Why are bonds failing to act like a safe-haven as stocks sell off ?
Money managers have relied on long-dated bonds to serve as ballast for the broader portfolio

https://www.schwab.com/resource-center/insights/content/quarterly-market-outlook?cmp=em-QYB
Quarterly Market Outlook: Coronavirus Tips the Scale
In our 2020 Market Outlook, we looked at a bifurcated economy asked “What may tip the scale?” We got our answer in the first quarter: the novel coronavirus.
https://www.schwab.com/resource-center/insights/content/market-perspective?cmp=em-QYB
Schwab Market Perspective: Coronavirus Hits Markets Hard

“There have been four great buying opportunities in my adult lifetime. The first was in 1973 and ’74, the second was in 1982, the third was in 1987 and the fourth was in 2008 and 2009. And this is the fifth one,”
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/18/investor-bill-miller-one-of-the-best-buying-opportunities-of-his-life.html

@hank: Is the answer Infinite ? While you were fully invested I was the opposite, to much so !!
With my Schwab account down 22.14 % YTD, I don't think that's to funny ! How are you doing ?
Since 01/01/2020 I've put 7.3 % of total starting portfolio to work. Approximate half before the down draft. So I'm not throwing a large % into the fire.
parsig9, from above, is investing a lot more than me , but to be fair he has a (few) years to go to retirement & I've been there for ten years.
You commented, "What about the current situation makes one bullish at this juncture ."
Nothing about this situation makes me bullish at this time. Down the line things will turn & Mr . Market will catch his breathe & rise again. Or are things different time ?
Have a good evening , Derf

Is there a case for that, that the outlook for corporate earnings is better now than in 2016?)

You could try digging around on this government data site.
Or, here's one news account that makes me think the answer to your question is no.

Corporate profits rose ever so slightly in the fourth quarter of last year after three consecutive drops in the first part of 2019. Heading into 2020, analysts were optimistic that earnings would continue to rebound.
Then the coronavirus outbreak happened. And now, all bets are off.

For sure corporations won't be buying back their shares this year with cheap borrowed money to jack up the price for executive compensation packages.

@rono has it correct, as usual.
Here’s from one pundit I follow:
“... other than to say there's going to be massive stimulus coming and we're going to have a lot of pain, it's very hard for me to come up with any kind of cogent plan for the near term that I would have any confidence in.”
Bill Fleckenstein, March 17, 2020 https://www.fleckensteincapital.com/dailyrap.aspx?rapdate=03-17-2020 (subscription required)

CNBC reports it jumped to 1.13 in after hours trading yesterday.

The 10-year Treasury yield jumped to 1.13% Wednesday after trading around 0.77% midday Tuesday before details of the potential stimulus emerged. It began the week at around 0.65%. It wasn’t the outright rate level that caused uneasiness among traders, but the rapid nature of the move overnight.

Gonna be rough out there today.

Investing 101
https://www.nj.com/coronavirus/2020/03/will-stocks-continue-to-fall-because-of-coronavirus-is-now-the-time-to-buy-what-about-my-401k.html
Will stocks continue to fall because of coronavirus? Is now the time to buy? What about my 401(k)?
The stock market tanked yesterday as investors reacted to the latest coronavirus news

In the past, ARTKX is a fund I would have looked at. But given its declining relative performance over the years (going from 5* over the past 10 years to 4* over the past five, to 3* over the past three), I might have expected it to have reopened sooner.
The M* analysis notes that "the fund has historically fared best during sell-offs." This time though, YTD, it's behind its category average, -32.82% vs -30.49%.
The analysis also says that it blends quantitative and qualitative screens. If one wants a value-leaning international blend fund with a fair amount of EM (10% - 20%), that uses both quantitative and qualitative processes, BRXAX is an alternative to consider.
It's also from a solid fund family (MFS), but it costs less and is much smaller in size ($250M vs. $14B). The funds have comparable std dev, same 3 year risk rating, similar market cap and style (on the border between value and blend), identical Sharpe ratios, nearly identical market capture ratios.
It's done slightly worse, cumulatively over its nearly five year lifetime, -8.05% vs. -6.90%, though better over the past three years, -14.7% vs. -18.5%. YTD, BRXAX has slightly outperformed its category average at -29.51% (ARTKX has underperformed YTD). All figures are as of 3/16/2020, using this M* chart.
Given the similarity between these funds, I'd take a closer look at both before deciding to invest in ARTKX. Though if one wants a compact portfolio, ARTKX's has just 39 equity holdings vs. 135 for BRXAX. Or if one doesn't insist on on a value-leaning fund, it's not hard to find better performing foreign large cap funds.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/935015/000119312520076139/d900439d497.htm
497 1 d900439d497.htm ARTISAN PARTNERS FUNDS, INC.
Filed pursuant to Rule 497(e)
File Nos. 033-88316 and 811-08932
ARTISAN PARTNERS FUNDS, INC.
ARTISAN INTERNATIONAL VALUE FUND
SUPPLEMENT DATED 17 MARCH 2020 TO THE
FUND’S PROSPECTUS CURRENT AS OF THE DATE HEREOF
Effective 17 March 2020, Artisan International Value Fund will open to new investors. All references to the closure of Artisan International Value Fund in Artisan Partners Funds’ prospectus are removed.
PLEASE RETAIN THIS SUPPLEMENT FOR FUTURE REFERENCE
Filed pursuant to Rule 497(e)
File Nos. 033-88316 and 811-08932
ARTISAN PARTNERS FUNDS, INC.
ARTISAN SMALL CAP FUND
SUPPLEMENT DATED 17 MARCH 2020 TO THE
FUND’S PROSPECTUS CURRENT AS OF THE DATE HEREOF
Effective 17 March 2020, Artisan Small Cap Fund will open to new investors. All references to the closure of Artisan Small Cap Fund in Artisan Partners Funds’ prospectus are removed.
PLEASE RETAIN THIS SUPPLEMENT FOR FUTURE REFERENCE

By William Samuel Rocco at M*
"Stylistic headwinds as well as stock selection have hurt Harding Loevner International Equity and Oakmark International.
The investment environment for international-stock funds has changed markedly for the worse in 2020, just as it has for domestic-equity offerings. Indeed, after posting solid gains over the final 9.5 months of 2019, most overseas stock markets gyrated down sharply during the first two and a half months of this year. Consequently, the average funds in all of the international-stock Morningstar Categories were in the red for the 12 months through March 13."
Click for Article

https://www.investopedia.com/government-stimulus-efforts-to-fight-the-covid-19-crisis-4799723?utm_source=personalized&utm_campaign=homepage&utm_term=19744559&utm_medium=email
Gov stimulus package info
United States
The U.S. Federal Reserve has taken two significant measures to provide monetary stimulus:
On March 3, 2020, it made an unscheduled cut to the fed funds rate. It slashed rates by 0.5%, double the amount of its recent moves, and the largest cut since the 2008 financial crisis.4
On March 12, the Fed massively expanded reverse repo operations, adding $1.5 trillion of liquidity to the banking system5 . This means that the Fed extended the amount of short term loans to banks to keep money markets (markets for very short term loans) stable and allow banks to have more cash on hand.
On March 15, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a full percentage point down to a range of 0.00% to 0.25%. This dropped the fed funds rate to the level it was before the rate increases starting in 2015. In addition, the Federal Reserve restarted quantitative easing with the purchase of $500 billion in treasurys and $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities.6
On March 16, the Federal Reserve increased reverse repo operations by another $500 billion.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/stock-market-opinions-abound-heres-an-objective-way-to-tell-when-the-market-bottoms-2020-03-17?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo
Opinion: Stock market opinions abound — here’s an objective way to tell when the market bottoms
Published: March 17, 2020 at 2:22 p.m. ET
By Nigam Arora
The relative strength index is a key indicator for investors

from GMO chief strategist James Montier (whose profile pic has him wearing a freakish Hawaiian shirt):

Emerging markets are trading on a Shiller P/E of 13x. This is the level of valuation that generally gets me excited. We have not experienced permanent impairment of capital from this level outside of markets that have shut down due to war. This doesn’t guarantee short-term returns or that we have reached a bottom: cheap stocks can always get cheaper. But it does provide a compellingly attractive entry point for those with a long horizon.
Even better are the value stocks within emerging markets, which trade on single-digit Shiller P/Es. So, embrace career risk, dare to be different, and recall the motto of the Special Air Service: Who Dares Wins.

https://www.valuewalk.com/2020/03/optimistic-2h-recovery/
Why we are optimistic: “Notes from the frontlines”
Calamos Global CIO Nick Niziolek shared the following optimistic investment commentary late today. Nick discusses the factors setting the stage for a very strong 2H recovery in the economy.

Really short on time this AM, a bit sloppy for this post.
TARP and TALF were the monetary back stops for the 2008 market melt, the last chance at the time. Aside from the state of the equity side of life and the focus there; the forgotten parts regular investors don't think about much; is the health of the "other" monetary areas of the economy. There are the every day, don't pay much attention to; large institution that are important in many aspects of everyday life; being large insurance companies and pension funds.
One example: As a result of the 2008 market melt, Lincoln Financial Group purchased a small S & L in order to qualify for a bail out package. The organization was at the edge of collapse.
More on this and a few links are at this April, 2017 MFO page.
The below Fed Act is a broad search, so you'll have to pick and choose by newest date for likely best review; if you have interest in this.
Federal Reserve Act, Sect. 13(3)
CNBC article
Overview, IMHO: Gonna have to be a pile of fiscal action via Congress, aside from whatever is "legal" from the Treasury or Fed. Reserve.
Will repeat, Treasury check to the adults; and $2 Trillion other money; as a start
Hey, what do you think???
Take care of you and yours,
Catch

The US does have more ICU beds per capita than other countries as the graphic shows. A Johns Hopkins page provides similar data.
That's certainly one measure of preparedness. But it's just one of many and IMHO underscores how the US healthcare forces are underprepared and poorly utilized compared with other countries. The Johns Hopkins page notes that the limiting factor on ventilator therapy is not the amount of hardware available but the number of medical professionals in the field.
Under normal circumstances, a country having a greater reserve capacity as measured per capita means that it is more likely to be able to handle a surge in medical needs without suffering additional deaths. But in extraordinary circumstances, a surge can far exceed capacity.
The number of additional deaths is then determined primarily by the spillover of the surge, not by the comparatively small number of ICU beds available. This is why the critical factor is not the number of ICU beds per capita but how well a country spreads out the surge, i.e. "flattening" it by early intensive government intervention.
It's not just ICU beds and ventilators that are needed. It's a whole infrastructure - health care professionals, hospital beds in toto (where the US lags far behind per capita), it's an integrated healthcare system (e.g. Taiwan is able to ration masks to ensure availability), and so on.
The US is very good at spending money on the most expensive equipment and drugs. Not so good at allocating resources where they can do the most good for the most people.
It provides the best medical care money can buy, even if that best care is bought from other countries.

https://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/hedge-fund-and-insider-trading-news-ricky-sandler-anthony-scaramucci-ray-dalio-lansdowne-partners-raymond-james-financial-inc-rjf-chimerix-inc-cmrx-and-more-819926/
Hedge Fund and Insider Trading News: Ricky Sandler, Anthony Scaramucci, Ray Dalio, Lansdowne Partners, Raymond James Financial, Inc. (RJF), Chimerix Inc (CMRX), lost during outbreaks
Totally Understandable,’ Scaramucci Says (CNBC)
It’s “totally understandable” why U.S. stock futures plunged after the Federal Reserve’s latest moves to counter the economic hit from the coronavirus outbreak, said Anthony Scaramucci, a hedge fund investor who briefly served as President Donald Trump’s White House communications chief. “The reason why markets are selling off right now is we have a ton of information about the virus, but a very, very little amount of understanding,” Scaramucci, founder and co-managing partner of Skybridge Capital, told CNBC’s “Capital Connection” on Monday

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/03/16/coronavirus-crash-should-you-buy-bonds-right-now.aspx
/The COVID-19 outbreak has thrown global stock markets for a loop, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES:^DJI) down almost 30% from their recent highs. Those with stock-heavy portfolios are scared to look at their brokerage statements because of the losses they've likely endured./
Imho maybe best have diversed portfolio in these market conditions because difficult find bottoms and stocks may have rebounds massive upswing days/folks sitting too much bonds may miss those boats

Interesting thoughts. I assume the big investment banks use models of this sort. I know Goldman Sachs has recently predicted a significant drop in GDP - from the attached:
“ The coronavirus pandemic will drag the US into a recession after a sharp decline to economic activity through the first half of the year, Goldman Sachs said Sunday.
GDP growth will slow to a halt in the first quarter before shrinking 5% in the second quarter, the bank's analysts wrote.”
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/economic-recession-forecast-coronavirus-fuel-us-gdp-contraction-market-goldman-2020-3-1028999426