When 2024 began, there was deep concern that the major indexes were showing big gains from a very narrow range of stocks.
Narrow range as in: tech, tech and more tech.
Monday brought a close to both September and the third quarter. So, it’s time to see how stocks have moved around.
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For the year to date, tech is still the leading market sector in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, up 29.6%. But most of those gains were achieved in the first quarter. That’s when stocks like Nvidia (NVDA) were soaring as investors had become enthralled with the idea and, they hoped, the promise of artificial intelligence.
With the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates, the broadening that hit U.S. stocks in the third quarter is likely to continue.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in a Monday speech all but promised two more rate cuts in the 2024, probably 0.25% per cut. On Sept. 18, the Fed cut its key federal funds rate to 4.75% to 5%, its first rate since 2020.
That should pull down interest rates for everyone, with a 30-year mortgage rate dropping below 6% at some point.
There two risks to the scenario: The port strike likely to erupt Monday night and the threat of broadening war in the Middle East.
The Dow Jones industrials, down as many as 315 points during the session, finished up 17 points at a record 42,330.15. The S&P 500 was up 24 points to a record 5,762.48. Nasdaq Composite index added 69.58 points to 18,189.17, about 2.5% below its July 10 record close of 18647.45.
Tech stocks take a breather
Nvidia alone was up 82% in the first quarter alone and is still up 145.2%. But its third-quarter was not one to write home about: The shares fell 1.7%. thanks in part to a 5% loss in July.
But the S&P 500 finished the quarter up 20.8% for the year to date. That was the biggest gain through the third quarter of any year since 1997.
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The third quarter overall was dominated by a huge interest in utilities stocks. The S&P 500’s Utilities sector was up 18.5% for the quarter and 6.4% in September. Real estate stocks jumped 16.3%, with a 2.8% gain in September.
What happened? Investors started to worry that tech stocks had become overbought — actually wildly overbought — and looked toward stocks that might benefit from lower interest rates.
Utilities Vistra (VST) , up 38.8%, and Constellation Energy CEG, up 32.2%, were the top S&P 500 performers in September. (They also stand to benefit from the buildout of infracture to power AI installations.)
The laggards: Oil and gas producer APA Corp. (APA) , down 14.2%, and Dollar Tree (DLTR) , down 16.8%.
Home Depot (HD) and Caterpillar (CAT) led the Dow, up 10% and 9.8%, respectively. Boeing (BA) , down 12.5%, and JP Morgan Chase (JPM) down 6.2% were the Dow laggards.
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