Market moves across the month were to the south. Fixed income markets seemed to have a more drastic message on the monitor than that of equities.
Fixed Income: 2-Yr Treas Yield 4.16% | 10-Yr Treas. Yield 4.28%
Bond markets went for a reversal ride in October. After several months of falling rates, we began to see a pullback in the bond market as interest rates rose. The 2-year treasury rose 0.55%, while the 10-year treasury rose 0.54%. The good news is that while rising, the rates did not invert again. The long picture remains intact. We are still in an elevated rate environment with them more likely to drift south rather than north. This move may have been the result of predictions for a potential structure that would mean tariffs. This would reflect a higher inflation potential which would signal a slower path in future rate cuts. Additional good news is that while rates from 6 months on rose, shorter duration rates continued to fall. This bodes well for the normalization of the entire curve.
Equities: Dow Jones 1.34% | S&P 500 0.99% | NASDAQ 0.52%
While it was a down month for equites, the overall move south was not bad for the month. From the top of the market for the S&P 500 (10/18/2024) to the end of the month logged a 2.83%. This proved to be a mild lead up to the beginning of November. The nice part is that while a correction has not materialized, earnings season did, bringing the P/E ratio for the S&P 500 back down to 21.19.
Throughout the month utility stock did well until the last week of the month. A shifting towards Financial and consumer discretionary was underway. Neither of which are surprising given interest rates (favoring financials) and the fact that we are in the fourth quarter… I like to say, ‘Americans spend money they do not have on things they do not need’, AKA: holiday season!
Conclusion
Equities pulled back less than was indicative of the rate move on the bond market. The move there signaled more concern about higher rates for longer than equities chose to price in. The shift in rates seemed like a long-term change in projection, while short rates seemed anchored to FRB actions. The longer rage rates often can be equated to long range GDP expectations. If the view is that we would have stronger forward GDP in 5 years, then we see a stronger 5-year rate.
A Look Ahead…
Market responses in October could have been far more drastic than they were. We should feel fortunate that we got the October that we did. This still leaves a correction (a market fall of 10% to 19%) unattended to. The last one ended 10/27/2023. While stretched P/E’s from over the summer have become more reasonable, that’s been due to strong earnings. Those may continue in the short run, but moving into 2025 those might be harder to come by. It may very well cause a correction in the first half of the year.
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You been quiet quitting behind my back, Bobby? Find out what it is and why it is the devil!
Monday S&P 500 0.70% | NASDAQ 1.00%
The hit from Friday continued into Monday. Yields in the short-term market continued to rise reflecting higher expectations of a Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) rate that is sustainably higher.
Tuesday S&P 500 1.10% | NASDAQ 1.10%
Markets opened in the red on news that Taiwan fired missiles at a Chinese drone. JOLT’s job opening rose in July and that supports the FRB path higher on rates. The added economic strength hurt equity markets.
Wednesday S&P 500 0.78% | NASDAQ 0.56%
Equity markets moved to the south Wednesday… again. The hangover from the Friday FRB speech continues to rattle markets. The end result of August was a down month even after markets grew nicely in the first half. Interestingly, Tech outperformed and oil prices were down. These both reflect a view of a less aggressive FRB.
Thursday S&P 500 0.30% | NASDAQ 0.26%
September started in the green, at least for the S&P 500. Tech stocks and commodities fell on the day. The stocks that were green tended to be healthcare and consumer staples. The move was decidedly defensive.
Friday S&P 500 1.07% | NASDAQ 1.31%
Happy Jobs Friday! The unemployment rate rose to 3.7%. The increase was deceptive however, as the economy added over 300K jobs, in line with expectation. The reason for the rate increase was that participation rose. This created more of a gap between those looking for work and those employed. This is actually good news. Lately good news for the economy has been bad news for the market and that held true on Friday.
Conclusion S&P 500 3.29% | NASDAQ 4.21%
Inflation, inflation, inflation… One factor that contributes to the inflationary story is the employment rate. However, there is a new factor at play that makes the unemployment rate not quite as reliable. Quiet quitting… This is where an employee does just enough of their job to not get fired. Meanwhile they look for other work or even try to start their own business. While this might seem like a small problem, productivity is suffering. Productivity has been erratic lately, measuring worse in the last two quarters than it has since the Financial Crisis. This is a problem because as an employee does less work, they are effectively increasing their wage for the services rendered. This has an inflationary effect. The new economy may be less about going and asking your employer for a raise (which leads to embedded inflation) and more about doing multiple jobs half insert expletive… This creates an inflation that we don’t account for. It also implies an underlying health to economic spending that we currently cannot measure.
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Any and all third-party posts or responses to this blog do not reflect the views of the firm and have not been reviewed by the firm for completeness or accuracy.