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Weekly Market Update

Breaking Down 2024 Market Performance

The 2024 market saw strong equity gains, led by a resilient economy and easing inflation. However, fixed income faced challenges as rising yields and a stronger dollar impacted performance. Real Assets, especially gold, outperformed the S&P 500. 

5 min read
Head of North American Investment Strategy & Research
Senior Investment Strategist
Investment Strategy & Research Specialist
Fixed Income Portfolio Specialist

The year 2024 brought the long awaited easing cycle from the Fed where we saw 100 bps of rate cuts as inflation took a bumpy ride downward with YoY headline CPI moving from 3.3% to 2.7% (as of Nov). The labor market and economic growth remained resilient as Q3 real GDP increased at an annual rate of 3.1%.

This supported the equity market which took off running into the year and finished strong with the S&P 500 up 25%. Broadly speaking, the market favored large cap over small cap, growth over value, and U.S. over international. The Magnificent Seven was bid up further by AI prospects and solid earnings growth, which brought their combined weight to one-third of the S&P 500. This proved to be an obstacle to active managers, many of whose position limits forced them to be underweight (these names) relative to benchmark.

The year wasn’t so kind to fixed income as yields rose over Q4. The US 10-year Treasury started the year at 3.88% and ended the year at 4.57%. Broadly, markets favored high yield over investment grade bonds, real rates over nominals, and short over long duration.

We saw strong performance within real assets, specifically gold which outperformed the S&P 500, even as the dollar strengthened and real rates remained high.

In the chart below, we explore the “Big Winners” of 2024. For our thoughts on 2025 please see our recently published Global Market Outlook.

Weekly Market Update Jan 10 2025

Weekly Market Update Jan 10 2025

Our Global Market Outlook is live....

What are the key risks and opportunities in 2025? Our Outlook brings you an actionable set of investment views that will help you stay ahead of the market.

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