Given the current turn of events, it was a pretty good week for the stock market.

The market struggled to gain traction this week in the face of growing concerns over the rise in confirmed cases of COVID-19.

As far as quarters go, this one was for the record books. Whereas we experienced a significant drop in the first quarter of the year, we gained much of that back in the second quarter.

In another choppy week, investors put some chips on the table only to take them off later.

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. The context may be a little different, but this line spoken by Al Pacino in The Godfather came to mind as I considered this week.

In recent weeks, the news centered around reopening the economy and the expectation a vaccine may come as soon as the end of this year.

With the economy reopening, and the anticipated economic recovery beginning to appear, it is no surprise that the market keeps heading higher.

The markets made the most of a short trading week. In fact, investors came back on Tuesday in a pretty good mood and helped push the indexes higher.

You can tell things are slowly returning to “normal” as demonstrated by tension rising between the U.S. and China over trade, while protests in Hong Kong return amid rhetoric out of China.

With earnings announcements all but wrapped up, investors returned to news about the pandemic and more broadly, the effect it is having on the economy.