September 13, 2024, Weekly Stock Market Return Recap, by Kip Lytel CFA, Montecito Capital Management. Over the course of the week, the S&P 500 experienced an increase of 4%, while the Nasdaq Composite saw a rise of 5.9%, marking the most successful week of the year for both indices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also made progress, advancing by 2.6% during the same period. Economic indicators suggesting a slowdown in inflation appear to bolster the argument for a potential interest rate reduction, with recent developments now introducing the possibility of a more substantial 0.5% cut by the Federal Reserve. The consumer price index for August registered an annualized rate of 2.5%, the lowest since February 2021. Additionally, wholesale prices increased by 0.2% in August, aligning with market expectations.
September 6, 2024, Weekly Stock Market Return Recap, by Kip Lytel CFA, Montecito Capital Management. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite fell by 1.7% and 2.6%, respectively, as technology stocks suffered significant losses, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased by 1%. The S&P 500 has now recorded four consecutive days of losses, resulting in its largest weekly decline since March 2023, a pattern that was similarly observed in the Dow. Since 1950, the S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average have experienced their most significant percentage declines during the month of September. Over the past decade, bonds have decreased in value in eight out of ten Septembers, and gold has seen a decline every September since 2017. The S&P 500 has recorded losses in each of the last four Septembers, and this year, the non-farm payrolls data may have increased importance for U.S. equities. This week, investors observed a phenomenon that has not occurred since the summer of 2022: a positively sloped yield curve. In particular, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note surpassed that of the 2-year notes by a small margin. US manufacturing activity contracts for a fifth straight month. The ISM manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) came in at 47.2% in August – up 0.4 percentage points from 46.8% in July.
