The 2nd quarter of 2024 continued where the first quarter left off posting a solid 4.3% return, ending the first half of the year up 15.3% on the S&P 500. The biggest difference between 1Q and 2Q was that tech made a strong comeback posting a 13.8% return.
Here is a snapshot of the market as of June 30th 2024.
The continued strength isn’t all surprising given the market backdrop we are currently facing. As noted in the 1Q Newsletter elections years tend to be one of the best market performances of the year as a sitting President’s political party wants to get reelected and will takes steps to drive the economy forward. See this chart below; if a sitting President and their party has a recession, they do not get re-elected.
Mid-Year Market Outlook – Featuring Nicholas Bohnsack with Strategas
Check out the link below with a video highlighting Baird’s Market Strategists’, Strategas, on the economy and a mid-year market and economic outlook.
https://www.bairdwealth.com/insights/market-insights/mid-year-market-outlook-with-strategas/
Expectations around the current inflation figures and future trends, interest rates, corporate profitably and AI have all been common topics this year and Nichloas addresses all of them.
A different perspective on AI: Artificial Intelligence Revisited, by Baird Trust’s Andrew Means, CFA and John Watkins III, CFA
AI continues to dominate the conversation and “AI companies” **cough cough..Nvidia** has seen an incredible, nearly unbelievable amount of growth and investment in the last few years. This has allowed many investors to reap significant rewards. It also causes a lot of investors who haven’t been solely invested in those companies to feel like they are missing out of significant gains that “put them behind.”
One of the investment managers we utilize who have a strong long term track record against the S&P 500 put their take on AI into perspective. We encourage you to check it out below:
https://www.bairdtrust.com/news-insights/2024/07/artificial-intelligence-revisited/
Tax Return Reviews: Mistakes, Corrections and Tax Savings
With tax season behind us, now is the time to review your returns of 2023 and prepare for 2024. This year our team has made a concerted effort to collect copies of last year's returns in an effort to provide you with a more comprehensive review of your financial picture.
For some of the clients we review we found opportunities to:
- Rebalance investments at a gain with little to no taxes due to lower income.
- Convert funds from and IRA to a ROTH in which taxes are paid at a lower rate than what is likely to be used in the future.
- Identify and eliminate future underpayment penalties.
- Identify and correct rare mistakes where distributions, contributions or back door ROTH contributions might not be reported correctly.
As a reminder, Baird does not provide legal or tax advice and during this review process we would work closely with your tax preparer or CPA.
Other BVB Group Updates
Please join us in congratulating our client assistant Danny von Estorff on passing his Series 7 and Series 66 exams, making him a fully registered associate at Baird. In addition to a future title change, Danny will also be able to accept trade orders.
For those of you who haven’t met Danny yet, he supports our operations of the team. He’ll help you with everything from money movements, contributions, account registrations and processes.
He graduated from UW – La Crosse with a bachelor’s degree in business management. Outside of Baird, Danny lives in downtown Milwaukee and loves watching sports, spending quality time with family and friends, and going up north to their family cabin.
JG2024-0724