September didn’t live up to its reputation as a scary month for stocks. As the calendar now turns to October, we examine seasonality data to assess whether the month is more likely to deliver a trick or a treat for stock market investors.  

After an extremely poor start, during which stocks — as measured by the S&P 500 Index — were down over 4% and saw the worst weekly return since early 2023, this September eventually bucked the historic seasonal trend of being the worst month of the year for stocks and finished up by over 2%. Stocks were boosted over 6% from the intra-month lows by an aggressive

When it comes to investing, gold may be the antithesis of artificial intelligence (AI). The precious metal has acted as a store of value for thousands of years with zero technological innovation — gold is discovered, not developed. Gold is also a real tangible asset and can act as a potential hedge against inflation or a safe haven during times of crisis. Given these properties and the backdrop of a risk-on-record-setting equity market, many investors are wondering what’s behind the paradoxical price action of gold’s rally to new highs and how the yellow metal has matched the momentum in AI stocks over the last several month

Fixed income investors may be feeling a little perplexed lately. After months of anticipation, the Federal Reserve (Fed) finally cut interest rates last week, but since then, Treasury yields are generally higher. The reason? Not only were markets expecting the rate cut, but the bond market also expects even more rate cuts over the next 12 months. Many financial markets are forward-looking, so these markets tend to price in the prospects of, in this case, rate cuts before they actually occur.   

Bond markets are currently pricing in an aggressive rate cutting cycle by the Fed with the expectation that the fed funds rate will be be

Increased volatility over the last several weeks has reshaped the equity market leaderboard. Capital has flowed out of technology and other cyclical areas of the market and into more defensive sectors. Signs of slowing economic growth, notably in the labor market, weak seasonality, political uncertainty, elevated valuations, and frothy sentiment — especially in the big tech, artificial intelligence, and semiconductor space — have all been contributing factors behind the rotation. The silver lining to this backdrop (aided by cooling inflation data) is a highly anticipated monetary policy pivot from the Federal Reserve (Fed) next we