Portfolio Manager Commentary

Q3 Market and Portfolio Review

In the third quarter of 2024, equity markets were positive and small cap stocks outperformed large cap stocks. Small cap stocks were particularly strong in July as it became more apparent the Fed would start the much-anticipated rate cutting cycle at the September Fed meeting. Overall economic data continues to be mostly solid, and inflation continues to decline and is now approaching the Fed’s target level of 2%. Meanwhile, the monthly jobs’ reports softened in the middle part of the year and the unemployment rate ticked up. The combination of these datapoints led the Fed to initiate a 50bp rate cut in September as well as set expectations for continued cuts going forward. Given the market strength in 3Q and YTD 2024 and the improving breadth across small caps and the equal weighted large cap indexes, it appears investors believe the Fed has engineered a soft landing or no landing and that the US economy will avoid recession. Please see the performance table for details.