Market Recap – October

Major Benchmark Returns in October 2024 & Year-To-Date

Geopolitical turmoil disturbed the market in October. Iran launched missiles at Israel, causing major stock indexes to briefly fall but swiftly recover, indicating that investors did not expect the conflict to escalate. Assets that tend to do well during crises did just that – gold’s spectacular ascent this year is the proof.

The CPI report was a bit hotter than expected and was among a basket of mixed signals released during the month. October only saw 12,000 job additions, although that number was affected by hurricanes Helene and Milton and a prolonged strike at Boeing.

October’s slew of corporate earnings was decent, but the market has already priced in most of the good news, so it would need some unexpectedly good news for further upside potential.

Election and the Market

All eyes are on the election, which is only a few days away! In this month’s blog post, we will focus on investment correlation, or the lack of, with politics and elections.

According to the polls, the Presidential race is tight. Here are some key policy proposals from each candidate:

Regardless of election results, the stock market is driven by economic prosperity and companies’ ability to make profits. History has shown that the party in control of the White House and Congress has little correlation to stock market returns.

As the old adage reminds us, time in the market is more important than timing the market. It’s important to have a long-term perspective and to keep emotions in check.

Let the holiday season commence!