Red October

For just the second month of 2024, and the first month since April, after surviving the often more dangerousmonth of September, the S&P 500 posted a negative October. The Nasdaq Composite closed out the month in the red as well, although that index had already posted a negative April as well as a negative July in 2024. There was some ugliness out there if you want to find it. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite have fared better than other pockets of our marketplace.

For that matter the Russell 2000, despite being up 8% year to date, has posted five red candle months this year, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has now gone negative for three of the past four months. The Philly Semiconductors may be up 18% year to date but are also more than 16% off of the July high for that index.

The S & P 500, had struggled of lare, going red for six of the final nine trading days of October, and allowing eight of the eleven S&P sector SPDR ETFs to lose ground for the month. As the long end of the Treasury yield curve pushed higher, spreads between the short and the long end steepened. This allowed the Financials (XLF) to post a first-place finish for October across these funds, gaining 2.56%.

Defensive sectors had an awful month, which is counterintuitive to what you might have thought... taking places nine through eleven on the monthly performance tables. Health Care (XLV) took the most severe beating, falling 4.64% in October as three more of these funds lost at least 3% and all eight "losers" gave up at least 1%.