Market Commentary
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The CPC Team
October 3, 2024
August 2024 Economic & Market Highlights
- In August, global stock markets faced a sharp sell-off early in the month, triggered by disappointing U.S. economic data and Japan's surprise rate hike, which led to an unwinding of carry trades. However, markets rebounded as investors adjusted their expectations for more aggressive Federal Reserve rate cuts, with U.S. large-cap stocks ending the month up 2.4%.
- International markets gained 3.3%, driven by Europe's recovery and a weaker U.S. dollar, which provided support to emerging markets. Despite volatility from China's real estate crisis, emerging markets rose 1.6%, as local currencies strengthened due to dollar weakness.
- In the bond market, the Barclays Aggregate rose 1.4%. High-yield bonds and emerging market debt also saw gains, as investors showed renewed desire for riskier assets amid slowing inflation and improving sentiment in the bond market.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), commonly known as “The Dow” is an index representing 30 stock of companies maintained and reviewed by the editors of the Wall Street Journal. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index of 500 widely held stocks that is generally considered representative of the U.S. stock market. The Russell 2000 Index measures the performance of the 2,000 smallest companies in the Russell 3000 Index, which represent approximately 8% of the total market capitalization of the Russell 3000 Index. The MSCI EAFE (Europe, Australasia, and Far East) is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure developed market equity performance, excluding the United States & Canada. The EAFE consists of the country indices of 22 developed nations. The MSCI Emerging Markets is designed to measure equity market performance in 25 emerging market indices. The index's three largest industries are materials, energy, and banks. The Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index is a broad-based flagship benchmark that measures the investment grade, US dollar-denominated, fixed-rate taxable bond market. The Barclays Capital Municipal Bond is an unmanaged index of all investment grade municipal securities with at least 1 year to maturity. Keep in mind that individuals cannot invest directly in any index, and index performance does not include transaction costs or other fees, which will affect actual investment performance. Individual investor's results will vary. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Any opinions are those of CPC Advisors and not necessarily those of Raymond James. The foregoing information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but we do not guarantee that it is accurate or complete, it is not a statement of all available data necessary for making an investment decision, and it does not constitute a recommendation. All opinions are as of this date and are subject to change without notice. Investing involves risk and you may incur a profit or loss regardless of strategy selected. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.
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