April 26, 2024, Weekly Stock Market Return Recap, by Kip Lytel CFA. For the week, US equities snapped its losing streak with the Nasdaq soaring 4.2%, followed by the S&P 500 +2.7% and the Dow Jones finishing up 0.7%. The markets were fueled by powerful earnings from Google and Microsoft and encouraging inflation data. The U.S. GDP grew at a 1.6% annualized rate in Q1, below expectations, while the core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index came in at 3.7% annualized. Consequently, the reemergence of the “stagflation” topic reverberated through the markets. The stock market is also supported by the Federal Reserve leaving three rate cuts on the table for the remainder of 2024, hinting they viewed strong inflation data earlier this year as a temporary rather than a sticky, lingering problem.

April 19, 2024, Weekly Stock Market Return Recap, by Kip Lytel CFA. For the week, the S&P 500 fell 3.05%, the Nasdaq plummeted 5.52%, and the Dow edged +0.01%. The tech sector has placed significant downward pressure on the stocks and the sector was the worst performing in the S&P 500 for the week. In particular, the Netflix stock drop was one of the bigger drags on the benchmark S&P index. The stock market has also been consolidating downward on lower expectation on the number of Fed rate cuts and the new uncertainties on timing of Fed rate actions.  Inflation has been stickier than anticipated and there is a prevailing view that there still might be an abundance of quantitative easing cash in the economy.  The S&P and Nasdaq have declined for six consecutive sessions, the longest streak of declines for each since October 2022.

April 12, 2024, Weekly Stock Market Return Recap, by Kip Lytel CFA. All three major US equity indexes dropped by over 1% for the week on abating consumer confidence and stronger than expected inflation. The University of Michigan’s consumer-confidence reading edged down, while US consumer prices came in hotter than expected in March, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Dow Jone fell 1.2%, while the Nasdaq composite dropped 1.6%. All 11 of the S&P 500’s sectors recorded weekly losses, with the S&P 500 finishing down 1.5% on the week; that hasn’t happened since September. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.4% over the previous month and 3.5% over the prior year in March, an acceleration from February’s 3.2% annual gain in prices.

April 6, 2024, Weekly Stock Market Return Recap, by Kip Lytel CFA. US equities pulled back from record highs on economic data and comments from the Fed, which further clouded the outlook for rate cuts. The S&P 500 declined -0.9%, the Nasdaq Composite pulled back -0.8%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell -1.3%.