$anta Claus Rally?
Hello everyone!
Welcome to the December edition of the boodle blog! We thank you for joining us here, and if this is your first visit to our blog page, we welcome you!
Here we are in the month of December, and for our members that have been with us over the entire year, give yourself a pat on the back! This is our last blog for the year and there is so much to discuss that we can't wait to share it all with you. First, let's talk about the 2024 Presidential race. As you all know by now, Donald Trump won a second term and will be sworn into office next month. This was a long, hard-fought campaign and in the end, the voters chose Trump, and they also awarded the Republicans the Senate and the House.
From the point of view as a boodle member, how should you look at this win? We believe that there are some possible good things that may bode well for boodle members, if Trump is able to get his agenda passed. The voters want to see inflation continue to recede and they also want the illegal border crossings to stop. These two actions could be seen as a bullish indicator because a secure border and lower prices could help put more money in the pockets of Americans and we think that is a good thing. We will have more to say about the incoming Republican administration in the coming year, so you should continue to subscribe to Boodle.
Before we talk about the new month, December let's look back at November and how it performed for our clients. The numbers tell the story for November, and those numbers are the advancement numbers in the indexes that we track. The biggest gains of 2024 occurred in the month of November and let's kick it off with the DOW adding 7.54% and YTD standing at 19.16%. The S&P 500 gained 5.73% and stands at 26.47% YTD. The tech-heavy NASDAQ rose 6.21% for November and sits at 28.02% YTD.
The unemployment rate is expected to tick up to 4.2% from the 4.1% of October. The Federal Reserve has announced a bias to cutting interest rates so we can expect to see several rate cuts in the new year, probably quarter of a point (0.25%).
For December, boodle expects to see more gains to top out the excellent year that has been 2024. A phenomenon that generally occurs in December is something called the "Santa Claus rally". This is something that usually occurs towards the end of December and there are several factors involved that help lift stocks; mutual funds pay out dividends this month, employees make contributions to their retirement accounts and corporate earnings are also a factor. Boodle continues to recommend that our subscribers maintain their portfolio allocation, continue to read and learn about investing (a good place to learn is right here at the blog) and continue their "dollar-cost-averaging" approach to investing. We are writing this blog on November 30th and we believe the market, as measured by the S&P 500 will finish at, or slightly more than its current gain of 26.47%. Have a very Merry Christmas, we thank you for your trust and we look forward to seeing you in January! Take care enjoy your time with friends & family!