Friends,
As I suggested in January, we were heading into the 3rd year of the 4 year presidential term. This tends to be the strongest year historically in the markets and we have been seeing it. Regardless of what all the short-term focused timers on CNBC have been saying all year, the S&P 500, Technology sector, and global stocks have had a strong first half. Although the S&P 500 finished the first half up over 16%, it’s been mostly the technology sector that has driven this gain.(Many don’t recall that the technology sector had big losses in 2022 and thus needed to rally to make up for those losses.) Interestingly, the average stock in the S&P 500 is only up about 6%. For this market to go higher in the near term, we should see the “rest” of the market and dividend stocks catch up.
We will continue to rebalance our portfolios when needed and help meet your personal planning goals.
See this for more detail on the quarter: here
SWM NEWS:
Jeff’s daughter, Caroline, graduated from NYU with an art history and photography degree. They had a nice time seeing Yankee stadium for the graduation, catching a comedy show, and enjoying the food in NYC.
