Stocks Stage Comeback After Heavy Monday

2024-08-12T10:23:05-05:00August 12, 2024|Categories: Weekly Update|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

The Weekly Update

Week of August 12th, 2024
By Christopher T. Much, CFP®, AIF®

Stocks ended last week with modest losses, masking a volatile five-day trading period that saw investors embrace recession concerns and then dismiss the slow-down talk as speculation as the week progressed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.60 percent, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index ended flat (-0.04 percent). The Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.18 percent. The MSCI EAFE Index, which tracks developed overseas stock markets, fell 1.21 percent.

Stocks Stage Comeback
Monday was the worst day for the S&P 500 and the Dow in nearly two years. As recession talk grew louder, investors took a “risk off” position.

On Monday, the Japanese market had its worst drop since 1987 as market participants unwound positions from a popular trading strategy called a “carry trade” amid a global sell-off in stock prices.

But on Thursday, initial jobless claims fell less than expected—a positive …