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Year-End Reflections: Navigating the Peaks and Valleys of 2024

January 13, 2025 - December delivered a disappointing finish to what was otherwise a rewarding 2024 for diversified investors. Despite a fair amount of tumult and trepidation throughout the year, investors were largely rewarded for staying the course. For the full year, equity markets were predominantly positive with certain market segments, like U.S. Large Cap Technology stocks, seeing quite strong returns. Bond markets were more reserved in their full year returns, weathering a fair amount of volatility in response to changes in the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy.

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Bump And Caution

December 10, 2024 - November was an unusually flat month for both bonds and domestic large caps. The latter, in particular, enjoyed a post-election bump then remained elevated for the remainder of the month. Even so, they did decline slightly on November 15 which may have been in response to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s Economic Outlook remarks from the previous evening. For the month, though, the S&P 500 returned 5.4% and the NASDAQ posted +5.45%. Bond markets, tracked by the Bloomberg US Aggregate Total Return Value Unhedged Index, stayed strong despite an early-month decision by the Fed to cut interest rates and closed the month up 1.51%.

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All Trick, No Treat

November 8, 2024 - As we pack away the skeletons and cobwebs until next year, we reflect back on what was a frightful month of October in financial markets. Investors were treated to another tumultuous month of stock market performance and a mixed bag of economic data. In a spate of ominous cooperation equites and bonds were broadly down for the month, leaving investors little room to hide. Despite establishing a new all-time high mid-month, the S&P 500 retreated through month end to finish -0.91% for October. Valuations and concentration have been ongoing topics of concern, especially within the S&P 500 index.

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Reelin' & Rockin’: A Look Back at 3Q24

October 9, 2024 - This third quarter of 2024 brought several memorable events. Unemployment rates have crept slowly upwards and recent polls suggest that trend is expected to continue. Even so, according to a recent report by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, real GDP has risen by 4.6% for January through June. Hurricane Helene made landfall in central Florida as a category 4 hurricane, and devastated regions across the southeast. Airlines are still recovering from an update to widely adopted software that interrupted their systems in mid-July.

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Summer Spring

September 5, 2024 - While the month may have started off in a stumble , August made a quick recovery. Markets tumbled on the first of the month, and then saw one of the worst single day drops in history on the very next day. However, both equity and bond markets quickly recovered, and August performance was able to mirror that of previous months. Equity markets returned 3.84% and 3.11% for the month as tracked by the S&P 500 and NASDAQ, respectively.

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Bulls On Parade

August 6, 2024 -Much like its namesake holiday, this July was a month full of fireworks in financial markets. While global equities posted relatively tepid headline returns, a burst of eye-catching spectacles were seen for those willing to look a little harder. Bond markets experienced their own gyrations over the month with the Treasury yield curve falling markedly over July in growing anticipation of coming rate cuts. Overall, July was another solid month for markets in what has been a strong year for investors’ portfolios.

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Hold Steady

July 16, 2024 - Increasingly hot market sentiment led to rising domestic equities markets in June with major indices reaching 2024 highs. The three most watched indexes in the US all saw gains for June with the S&P 500 Index rising 3.35% with 2024 year-to-date total gains of 15.13% through month end. The NASDAQ Composite Index finished +5.37% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average +1.5% for the month. The NASDAQ and DOW are up +20.09% and +4.72% year to date, respectively.

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Markets In Bloom

June 10, 2024 - The April showers did, in fact, bring May flowers. Markets hit record highs on the back of the April Consumer Price Index (CPI) report. On Friday, May 17, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) reached a new all-time high and closed above 40,000. After hitting this mark, there was light volatility as markets lost steam for a few days, but shortly thereafter things picked back up once again. Equity markets returned 5.16% and 7.24% for the month as tracked by the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Index, respectively.

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Will April Showers Bring May Flowers? (Here's Hoping)

May 6, 2024 - Markets experienced April showers this month with most all major domestic indices falling from their 2024 Q1 highs. The S&P 500 Index saw a pullback of -4.16% from its first quarter high, ending April down -3.97. The NASDAQ Composite finished -4.41% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average -5%.

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We Feel Good

April 15, 2024 - Here in our home state of Georgia the flowers are blooming, pollen is blanketing the landscape, and winter coats are being traded in for short sleeves "It’s springtime and we have just wrapped up a beloved sporting event here in our corner of the world – the Masters golf tournament." Although we’ve not even reached “the turn” for 2024 yet, we thought it appropriate to evaluate the “scorecard” as it currently stands at the end of the first quarter.

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Between Scylla and Charybdis

March 5, 2024 - In February, overall returns were a mixed bag with equities performing well but debt markets returning negative for the month. The S&P 500 returned up 4.03% and NASDAQ was up 4.06%. Although performance is certainly not indicative of future results, we find it relevant to note that in closing out the third full week of the month, both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) hit all-time highs.

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January Hawks & Doves

February 13, 2024 - January markets reacted positively to the end of 2023’s strong jobs report that helped keep unemployment at 3.7%. U.S. markets finished higher for the month of January over December.

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2023 In the Rearview

January 11, 2024 - December closed the book on a tumultuous year in financial markets. 2023 will be remembered as a year in which we saw no shortage of challenges both global and domestic.

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Cold November

December 11, 2023 - To nearly no one’s surprise, and as we mentioned in our October commentary, the Fed held rates steady in its November 1st decision. This decision left markets relatively uninfluenced. Debt and equities were both on the rise from the start of the month. This upward trend continued into the second half of the month, when investors reacted positively to the inflation report for October.

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October Fall

November 2, 2023-October 2023 saw promising run-ups in the S&P 500 and NASDAQ indices for the first half of the month, but both major indexes finished down by month end. The S&P 500 reached its zenith on October 17 at $4,393, or 2.58%, from the beginning of month open before finishing down -2.07% for the month.

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September Slide

October 9, 2023 September began with many indices trending downward, and this continued into the end of the month. On the 20th, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) released their decision to hold interest rates rather than hike them. This was its second decision to hold rates since January 2022, the last decision to do so being in June. Following this announcement, there was further downturn in the market but it’s difficult to attribute this market deterioration solely to this decision by the Fed.

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Hot July

August 9, 2023 This month marks the start of the third quarter, another interest rate increase by the Federal Reserve, and a continued recession watch. Despite this rate increase, the S&P 500 ended the month + 3.09% and the NASDAQ rose 3.85%. Fixed Income sectors, as tracked by the Bloomberg US Agg Total Return Value Unhedged USD, while not quite as strong, did continue the positive trend and squeaked out + .14%.

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Scenes From The Chop House

June 8, 2023 - As we concluded a tense month in global financial markets, all eyes turned toward Washington where the ongoing debt ceiling crisis appeared to be nearing a resolution. Negotiations dominated headlines throughout April and most of May until fears swelled to a crescendo late in the month when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen delivered a letter to Congressional leadership announcing a June 5th deadline after which the Treasury would be “unable to meet all of the government’s commitments.”

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April Showers

May 5, 2023-The first few weeks of April were slow as equities began the month with less volatility than we were seeing throughout March. However, after the first week, volatility returned. Despite this see-sawing, US markets stayed in the black.

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March Madness

April 13, 2023-Over the past few months, equity markets have remained volatile, and a few major economic events have kept them that way. Events including the fall of Silicon Valley Bank, rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, inertial inflation, and steep job cuts.

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Equities and Bonds Finish Strong in July as Fed Shifts on Inflation Fight

Despite subdued price action for the first two weeks of July, the month finished on a strong note following the Federal Reserve’s policy remarks and better than feared corporate earnings.

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Looking Ahead and Holding On

June was another roller-coaster month to end the first half of a roller coaster year. The S&P 500 Index had a total return of -8.26% for the month contributing to its current slide of -17.52% for the year.

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A Mixed Month for Markets; An Uncertain Path Forward

All things considered, May was a mixed month for stocks. Markets remained relatively flat while shouldering elevated volatility and year-to-date lows.

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A Rough Month For Equities

April was a rough month for equities. The S&P Total Return Index was down -8.72%, the Russell 2000 Total return Index was down -9.91%, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 13.24%.

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2021 In Review

Wow, another year is in the books. As we reflect on 2021 it’s difficult not to think of the past year as 2020’s sidekick.

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Hawkish Fed, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine Fuel Market Volatility

Entering 2022, persistently high inflation levels and the U.S. central bank’s policy direction posed one of the greatest risks to near and intermediate-term equity markets.

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The Shape Of Things To Come?

The first month of 2022 is now in the books, and to call it an inauspicious beginning to the year might be an understatement. There seem to be some definite headwinds for the United States, and the economy, which the market is reflecting.

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