September 2023 Economic & Market Highlights

Stock and bond markets declined in September, influenced by tight monetary policies of central banks, higher bond yields, and geopolitical tensions from Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Despite OPEC+'s extended oil supply cuts causing a rise in gas prices and overall inflation, core inflation rates in the US and Europe decreased.
Consumer spending outpaced income growth, hinting at possible cutbacks in discretionary spending. Broad equity market weakness was observed, except for the energy sector, which was up 3.85%. Notably, oil prices neared $100 a barrel last month.
Rising 10-year government bond yields in the US signaled market anticipation of continuation of tight monetary policies by central banks to curb inflation.

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Source: Morningstar - All performance is percentage change of total return

One cannot invest directly in an index. Past performance does not guarantee future results. The Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index is a broad-based flagship benchmark that measures the investment grade, US dollar-denominated, fixed-rate taxable bond market. The Barclays Capital Municipal Bond is an unmanaged index of all investment grade municipal securities with at least 1 year to maturity. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), commonly known as “The Dow” is an index representing 30 stock of companies maintained and reviewed by the editors of the Wall Street Journal. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index of 500 widely held stocks that is generally considered representative of the U.S. stock market. The Russell 2000 Index measures the performance of the 2,000 smallest companies in the Russell 3000 Index, which represent approximately 8% of the total market capitalization of the Russell 3000 Index. The MSCI is an index of stocks compiled by Morgan Stanley Capital International. The index consists of more than 1,000 companies in 22 developed markets. The MSCI Emerging Markets is designed to measure equity market performance in 25 emerging market indices. The index's three largest industries are materials, energy, and banks.

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