With Friday's close, U.S. stocks officially ended a strong first half of 2024. The Nasdaq rose as much as 18.1% in the first half of the year on the back of the AI craze. The S&P 500 gained 14.5% in the first half, while the Dow Jones industrial average lagged, gaining just 3.8%. As for cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin is up 43% year-to-date and Ethereum is up 48%.
Inflation data PCE in line with expectations
The U.S. Commerce Department reported on Friday that inflation slowed in May to its lowest annual rate in more than three years. The core PCE, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose only 0.1% from the previous month and an annual increase of 2.6%, both in line with market expectations and showing that inflation continues to cool.
According to CME Group FedWatch data, investors have slightly raised their expectations for an interest rate cut this year. They believe that there is a 62.4% chance that the Fed will restart the interest rate cut cycle in September, and there is a chance of another one-point rate cut in December.
U.S. stocks delivered impressive results in the first half of the year
With Friday's close, U.S. stocks officially ended a strong first half of 2024. The Nasdaq rose as much as 18.1% in the first half of the year on the back of the AI craze. The S&P 500 gained 14.5% in the first half, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged, gaining just 3.8%.
NVIDIA, which led this wave of AI gains, soared 150% and closed at $123.54 yesterday after a stock split.
Although the crypto market has been in a downturn recently, it has not performed well this year.
As for cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin has increased by 43% so far this year, and Ethereum has increased by 48%. Although the gains are brighter than the U.S. stock market, while U.S. stocks frequently hit new highs, Bitcoin and Ethereum have performed relatively weakly recently.
Especially since the Ethereum spot ETF has not yet been officially approved for listing, it is reported that the U.S. Securities Commission (SEC) has accused Lido and Rocket Pool of pledging securities, and then sued Consensys for violating securities laws and selling securities through MetaMask. This makes the overall encryption market atmosphere even more depressed.
The cryptocurrency-related stocks micro-strategy nearly doubled (98.92%) in the first half of the year, and the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase also experienced a 28% increase in the first half.
MicroStrategy, a software company that bills itself as a "Bitcoin development company", has successfully attracted a large amount of funds in the traditional financial market due to its continuous buying of Bitcoins. The fund company T-Rex also applied for the first 2x leverage long position in the United States. Although there is no shortage of short positions in the market to bet on the decline of micro-strategy ETFs, in terms of stock prices, the performance of micro-strategy has indeed surpassed that of Bitcoin and most technology stocks.
(Micro strategies are not enough, T-Rex applied for 2x leveraged MSTR ETF)
This article takes stock of market performance in the first half of 2024: US stocks and cryptocurrencies both rose strongly. It first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.
