Author

Chris McCall

• Major market indexes had a strong showing in the third quarter as “economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace,” to use the words from the September 18 ^th federal reserve meeting. At that meeting, the fed announced a 0.50% cut in the federal funds rate while acknowledging that inflation is trending down towards its long-term target.   

• Stock market leadership seems to be broadening out beyond large, US technology stocks (Microsoft, Apple, NVIDIA, Alphabet (Google), and Amazon). US large cap companies outside of these largest names, US small/mid cap companies, and international companies all outperformed the S&P 500 Index for the most recent quarter.

• Bonds rallied along with stocks with the broad bond benchmark (Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index) gaining 5.2% for the quarter and the Bloomberg Municipal Bond Index gaining 2.7% for the quarter. High yield bonds also saw a 5.3% increase and are now up 8% for the year as corporate balance sheets remain relatively healthy.   

• Research Highlight: Market Extremes Might Be Starting to Ease . Last quarter, we mentioned how high valuations in a narrow group of large, US technology stocks could present the opportunity for other parts of the market to play catch-up. That played out in this most recent quarter. Markets are healthier when there is broader participation, so it would be encouraging to see this trend continue. 
  

2024 Market Performance (Through 9/30/2024)

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