Spring 2024 - Quarterly Commentary

Stocks powered ahead in the first quarter, adding to strong fourth quarter gains. Continued enthusiasm for all things artificial intelligence (AI), along with US economic resilience and expectations for eventual rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, provided an attractive platform for equity market investors. An economic soft landing, deemed a far-fetched hope early in 2023, became the consensus call in the first quarter of 2024, as the fears of a Fed-induced recession faded.