After rising more than 10% in the first quarter of 2024, the S&P 500 stumbled out of the gate in the second quarter. The index contracted more than 4% in April and produced the first negative month of the year as the market reassessed the timing of the Fed’s first rate cut.
After experiencing zero in 2023, the S&P 500 took more than two years before making a new all-time high. Fast forward to the end of the first quarter, witnessing the S&P 500 march its way to 22 new all-time high levels, on pace for the most ever.
With so much uncertainty surrounding the Fed’s monetary policy and the contagious effects their aggressive rate hiking cycle would inflict on the economy, we entered 2023 with great pessimism and uncertainty.
For the past several quarters, the market has seemingly ignored communications from the Fed, particularly the point that interest rates will continue to rise and remain elevated for as long as it takes to restore inflation to their 2% target. This trend persisted up until August in the aftermath of Chairman Powell's Jackson Hole speech and the subsequent September Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.
Investing in the stock market can be an exciting and rewarding experience, but it can also be unpredictable and risky. One way to mitigate risk is to have a diversified portfolio, which means investing in a variety of different assets to spread out risk.