Message From CEO
Happy October everyone. This month has football, my birthday, and cool weather. Hard combo to beat.
Read on for a recap on last month’s markets and what to look for in the weeks ahead.
A Good Month
The stock market had a relatively steady positive month (thankfully). Most of the suspense relating to the Rate Cuts (more on that in a sec) was already priced in, so there wasn’t much drama to be surprised about.
U.S. tech stocks, which had led much of the market earlier in the year, began to underperform in September. Investor enthusiasm around artificial intelligence (AI) has subsided slightly, contributing to this decline. Big names like Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia, which had previously boosted the market, started facing concerns about their overpriced stocks.
However, towards the end of the month, there was a shift. Apple saw some gains following the launch of their new phone that comes integrated with AI (confession: as the proud owner of a new iPhone 16, I have to admit I have no idea how Apple Intelligence works). Tech stocks may come down slightly in the rest of the year but still remain the story of 2024 (so far).
A Decision At Last….
The Fed finally delivered on the long-awaited rate cut, lowering the discount window by 50 bps. More cuts are likely coming in November and December of this year.
Following the move we had the biggest drop on mortgage rates since February of 2023, showing hope to those long waiting to buy a home.
Businesses also have decreased borrowing costs (such as the WSJ Prime Rate, which is the starting point for a lot of SBA loans). Mergers and acquisitions could help drive the economy when consumer demand starts to weaken.
Election Update
BREAKING: there’s an election in six weeks. With parts of The Tax Law scheduled to expire at the end of next year, the results will impact on your finances one way or another. We don’t know how it will shake out but we know the possibilities, so we created a guide to the election 🇺🇸 to walk through each possible outcome. We’ll update this if necessary but my early prediction is that polls remain razor close.