Stocks End August Flat After Early Collapse; Bonds & Gold Soar On Rate-Cut Hopes
The S&P 500 traded in a 500+ point band in August (about 10%) as investors first became very concerned that an imminent recession was being ignored by the Fed, before becoming more convinced that a recession may not be that imminent and the Fed is poised to cut rates at its September meeting.
Along the way, the Nikkei dropped 12% in one day (only to reclaim almost all the lost ground by today, Sep-30) and the VIX spiked above 60 before receding back to 15 as uncertainty receded…
Source: Bloomberg
August was a replay of July in terms of macro surprise data (early ugly, late recover)…
Source: Bloomberg
…but August really spooked the markets (after payrolls – recession concerns), sparking a bloodbath in stocks to start the month, stocks (broadly speaking) rallied back to unchanged-ish on the month (flat-ish on the week and the day) with the S&P 500 leading the month while Small Caps lagged…
Source: Bloomberg
Rate-cut expectations rose on the month – mostly driven by the early month panic…
Source: Bloomberg
Treasuries were aggressively bid on the month led by the short-end (2Y -33bps)…
Source: Bloomberg
…which steepened the curve significantly (disinverting 2s30s)…
Source: Bloomberg
Bonds and stocks disagreed notably on the month and the recession odds…
Source: Bloomberg
Gold rallied to new record highs on the month after the early tumble…
Source: Bloomberg
Oil oscillated in a broad range but ended lower on the month…
Source: Bloomberg
The dollar was down hard on the month but staged a decent comeback this week after testing near YTD lows…
Source: Bloomberg
Bitcoin ended the month lower after recovering the early month losses and fading back…
Source: Bloomberg
Finally, it was a big week for the world’s most important stock…
Source: Bloomberg
Can NVDA keep the recession risks away single-handedly?
Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/30/2024 – 16:00