Stocks ended mixed on Monday as Wall Street’s seven-week winning streak cooled off.
The S&P 500 rose 0.5% and the Nasdaq composite picked up 0.6%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished essentially flat after most of a 0.2% gain faded by late afternoon.
A trader looks over his cellphone outside the New York Stock Exchange on Sept. 14, 2022, in the financial district of Manhattan.
Retailers and big technology companies were among the big gainers.
Energy companies also rallied as the price of crude oil jumped amid growing concerns about attacks from Iranian-backed Houthis on shipping in the Red Sea.
Treasury yields mostly rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 3.95% from 3.92% late Friday.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 21.37 points to 4,740.56. The Dow edged up 0.86 points to 37,306.02, and the Nasdaq gained 90.89 points to 14,904.81.
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The broader market surged last week and added to solid December gains after the Federal Reserve signaled that inflation may have cooled enough for the central bank to shift to cutting interest rates in 2024. The Dow closed out last week with a record, while the S&P 500 ended the week with its longest weekly winning streak in six years, while edging closer to its all-time high.
The benchmark S&P 500 is now up more than 23% this year, while the Nasdaq is up more than 42%.
“The winning streak, plus the fact that the Fed has pivoted as inflation continues to fall, has kicked off kind of a momentum burst,” said Michael Antonelli, market strategist at Baird. “At the end of last week, you had 70% of the S&P 500 above its 20-day moving average. That’s almost three quarters of the index rallying over the short run.”
Lower interest rates typically take pressure off of financial markets. The Fed’s goal since 2022 has been to slow the economy and grind down prices for investments enough through high interest rates to get inflation under control. Economic growth has slowed, but has not dipped into recession, while inflation continues easing.
Wall Street is betting that those conditions mean the Fed is done raising interest rates and could start cutting them in early 2024. Investors will get their last big inflation update of the year on Friday when the government releases its report on personal consumption expenditures. It’s the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation and has been easing since the middle of 2022.
Analysts polled by FactSet expect the measure of inflation to soften to 2.8% in November from 3% in October. It was as high as 7.1% in June of 2022.
Investors will also have a few big earnings reports to review this week, which could give them a better sense of how companies and consumers are faring amid high interest rates and lingering inflation.
These alternative investments are attracting millennials amid economic woes
These alternative investments are attracting millennials amid economic woes
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) may feel like it happened a lifetime ago, but a new survey analyzed by Moneywise reveals that it may be partly responsible for spooking investors, particularly millennials, into thinking twice about putting their money into traditional investment vehicles during times of high inflation.
A recent survey by retirement resource company Retirement Living discovered that 43% of millennials made alternative investments between October 2022 and March 2023, right around the time of the SVB collapse. Since the bank’s failure, 1 in 4 survey respondents reported an increased interest in alternative investments.
More than three-quarters (78%) of survey respondents made investments during that six-month period, but of those only one-third were alternative investments.
The most popular alternative investments among survey respondents were in cryptocurrency, collectibles, and gold.
“The uncertainty of the stock market makes it likely that I won’t make any money with traditional investing, and possible that I will even lose money,” a 39-year-old woman who was surveyed told Retirement Living. “It’s important to diversify, and now is a good time to look into alternatives.”
So how can you start investing in these different types of assets?
Cryptocurrency
Nearly 1 in 5 of survey respondents who made investments did so in cryptocurrency. But further research by Retirement Living found that searches for “best cryptocurrency to buy” decreased by 72% from April 2022 to March 2023.
This discrepancy may be because crypto hasn’t established itself as a reliable investment. Legendary investor Warren Buffett even stated that he would “never” invest in crypto because it does “not meet the test of currency.”
Despite its rocky reputation, crypto continues to attract a younger audience. According to a survey by crypto exchange Bitget released in April 2023, 46% of millennials across 26 countries owned cryptocurrencies. That’s compared to 25% of Gen X, 21% of Gen Z, and just 8% of baby boomers.
If you want to invest in crypto, you can do so easily through online investing apps. Just be aware some platforms charge fees.
Collectibles
You may think collecting baseball cards and stamps is for kids, but it can earn you big money. Around 6% of Retirement Living survey investors have put cash into collectibles, tied with gold as the second most popular alternative investment.
Now, you don’t need to go digging around your basement to find your Babe Ruth card to get in on the action. Collectibles include items from cars to artwork to wine, and many are accessible via investment platforms.
Some collectibles, however, can take a long time to accrue value, and they’re illiquid so you need to find sellers to get you that good payoff.
But collectibles can also bring greater returns than liquid assets. For instance, according to ArtPrice, the top 100 artists at auction have outperformed the S&P 500 in growth recently.
Gold
Gold is the most trusted alternative investment among Retirement Living survey respondents — even though only 6% of those who invested added it to their portfolio.
The nice thing about investing in gold is that it has inherent value. So even when the stock market is up and down or inflation is driving you wild, you can almost always trust that a pawn shop will want your wedding band.
You can buy gold in physical forms, like bars or jewelry. But there are also investing apps and gold IRAs to make purchases even easier.
This story was produced by Moneywise and reviewed and distributed by Stacker Media.
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