{"id":1423,"date":"2024-10-09T13:33:55","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T11:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/talentagestion.es\/monthly-market-report-september-2024\/"},"modified":"2025-03-19T11:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T10:50:09","slug":"monthly-market-report-september-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/talentagestion.es\/en\/monthly-market-report-september-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Monthly Market Report – September 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

The Fed’s mid-month meeting dominated market attention in September. The market focus shifts from inflation to growth, as it is fully discounted that a “soft landing” will be achieved in the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On September 18, the US Federal Reserve cut rates by 50 basis points, bringing the benchmark rate to 5.0%<\/strong> from 5.5%. It has been 30 months since the first rate hike in March 2022, with 16 consecutive months of subsequent hikes and a total of 14 consecutive months with rates at a peak level of 5.5%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The market discounts 2 additional cuts in 2024<\/strong>, each of 25 basis points. It is also very optimistic for next year, discounting a Fed roadmap that would take rates to 3.5% in December 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The European Central Bank met expectations and made its second rate cut in 2024. The benchmark level was lowered by 25 basis points to 3.5%. <\/strong> Although Lagarde ruled out a continued downward spiral, the market expects between 1 and 2 additional cuts this year and up to 100 basis points in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The month began with significant declines for equities. The Nasdaq fell nearly 6% during the first 5 sessions of September. <\/strong>This was its worst week since November 2022. The seasonality typical of the month added to the rotation from the “Magnificent 7” to more defensive stocks was the main reason. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, during the following three weeks, Wall Street experienced continuous rises, which allowed the S&P-500 index to reach new all-time highs, reaching 5767.37 points on the 26th.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fed’s rate cut together with a stable growth outlook acted as catalysts, allowing cyclical, growth and technology stocks to once again lead rallies, although all other types of stocks also recorded gains. The S&P-500 ended the month with a return of 2.02%, breaking the usual pattern of negative performance in September<\/strong>, something that tends to increase in election years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for fixed income, it had a double performance in September, achieving price increases during the first half of the month and then correcting steadily throughout the second half of the month. The expectation of rate cuts by the Fed led the US 10-year benchmark to trade at a minimum IRR of 3.60%, a level not reached since June 2023.<\/strong> After the Fed meeting, there were price corrections for the entire US curve. Despite this, at the end of September all maturities except for the 30-year were trading at lower IRR levels compared to those recorded at the end of 2023.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The behavior of the European curves was similar<\/strong>, although the movements were limited to medium and short maturities, as the long term remained stable or even experienced increases in IRR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the geopolitical level, the following issues were highlighted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n