The top 10 stocks in the S&P 500 have grown so large that they now represent 35% of the total index because of this concentration investors in the popular index will sink or swim largely based on the performance of those companies. For the first half of 2024 investors benefitted because the top 3 stocks Nvidia, Alphabet and Microsoft collectively were up 49% which accounted for 49% of the index's return. The index as a whole was up 14.5%.
S&P 500 earnings for 1Q24 just recently kicked off with reports from the major financial firms. In this weekly, we wanted to provide an overview of what investors could expect over the next few (busy) weeks for earnings
Last week, investors absorbed hotter-than-expected inflation data on both a month-over-month and year-over-year basis. The elevated inflation readings further call into question if the Fed will be able to cut rates anytime soon.
In April 2020, the U.S. economy exited a short but painful recession due to the COVID lockdown. After four years, the question is where are we in the economic cycle? When can the Fed cut rates?