Weekly Market Bullets

for the week ending 10/27/2023

• US Equity Markets officially entered correction territory last week, down over 10% since July, on broad-based weakness as geopolitical tensions increase and some high profile earnings reports disappointed investors. The S&P 500 fell 2.5% for the week to bring its gains for the year to 7.2%. The Nasdaq dropped 2.6% for the week and is now up 20.8% for the year, while the Russell 2000 (small cap stocks) also declined 2.6% for the week and is now down 7.1% for the year.

• Global Equity Markets declined last week as inflation data came in worse than expected and growing unease about events in the Middle East weigh on returns. Developed Markets were down 1.0% for the week and are now down 1.6% for the year. Emerging Markets fell 0.6% for the week to bring its losses for the year to down 4.6%.

• US Economic Growth for Q3 came in strong, topping forecasts. The preliminary estimate for GDP growth in Q3 was a robust 4.9%, better than expectations of 4.7% and up from 2.1% in Q2. A surge in consumer spending (up 4.0%) and government spending (up 4.6%) were the primary drivers of growth in the quarter.

• Gold prices are approaching an all-time high. With rising uncertainty in the equity markets and increasing geopolitical tensions globally, the price of gold is pushing near record highs. Gold closed last week at $2,016.30/oz, up 10.4% for the year and not far from its all-time high of $2,082,74, which was hit earlier this year. Prior to 2023, the last high for gold came in 2020 during the COVID pandemic when it topped $2,000 for the first time.

Market Data

for the week ending 10/27/2023