Welcome back subscribers and other readers. We all hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable Fourth of July holiday. Jumping right into our weekly perspective, it has been surprising to look back since the start of 2024. I am not sure that many Wall Street pros got the markets right. Most, I believe, were much more conservative and projected that we might see a 10-15% total return for all of 2024.Should we encounter a severe slowdown, or even a recession, the S&P 500’s return may be less than its current level of up more than 16%.As we will share with you later, one of our most dependable sources (who has been more accurate than most this year), Ryan Detrick of Carson, provides a few charts and statistics that suggest we will see more all-time highs in the S&P 500 for the remainder of the year, and that we have more upward price appreciation to go.Last week, we provided our readers with the different market index returns. As you would expect, the Nasdaq was the real winner, although the S&P 500 was not far behind.

The Major Winners and Biggest Contributors to the S&P 500 for the First Six Months of 2024
I have provided a table below (courtesy of The Motley Fool) that shows the five biggest individual contributors to the S&P 500 from Jan. 1, 2024 to June 28, 2024:The numbers above are staggering. Most of us cannot even fathom what $1 trillion dollars looks like, so the idea that these five companies increased their aggregate market cap by $3.66 trillion is really quite hard to grasp.The S&P 500 produced a 14.5% return for the first six months of 2024, so these 5 companies produced 63.2% of that return. In other words, those 5 companies helped contribute 9.16% of the 14.5% return of the S&P 500.Without those 5 companies’ contributions to the stock market, the other 495 companies only produced a return for the S&P 500 of 4.84%. Consider the fact that half of the S&P 500 companies (250 or more) had little to negative returns for the first six months of the year.

The Sector Winners Were…
Given the heavy dose of technology stocks above, one might think that technology (XLK) was the big winner. It was up 17.5% for the first six months, but it was not the stand-out. The semiconductor sector was the real winner, with the Semiconductor ETF (SMH) up 49.08% for the first six months.

The Other Sector Winners for the First Six Months Were…
Not surprisingly, a few of the other sector ETFs that were the big winners for the first six months were not company stock ETFs, but included mining and material ETFs. Their performance put them right at the top of the list. I say not surprisingly because Mish has been discussing (and suggesting these) for the past 18 months. Additionally, our ETF model(s) have also taken advantage of metals and mining as part of their recent portfolio allocations.

According to Mish, Gold May be The Biggest Winner from the Debates
We are aware that the markets tend to have a positive bias during major National election years, and we suspect that 2024 will be no different.Mish recently wrote that the real winner from the debate was: Owning metals.  We suggest that you read the article, as it provides the reasons why you might consider adding the metals to your portfolio. Especially since, as noted above, silver, copper, and gold have been winners, and that was amplified and reinforced this past week.

And the Economic Winner This Past Week Was…
The jobs report came out on Friday. While still a healthy number with a little over 200,000 jobs created for June, the previous month’s job report was restated and showed basically zero job growth. The unemployment rate increased to 4.1%.These are good numbers if you are hopeful that the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates sooner than later. There are still many analysts and pundits who are hawkish and remain concerned that inflation is still too high and well above the Fed’s long-term target of 2%.Then there are those who are more dovish and believe that rates are too high, too restrictive, and are punishing consumers with sky-high interest rates and keeping the homeowner industry from functioning properly. These people see the recent jobs information as helpful in motivating the Fed to cut rates soon.The futures betting pool jumped to over a 65% chance of a September interest rate cut and a better than 70% chance that we will see two interest rate cuts, with the second coming after the election, sometime in November.

And the Winner for the Best Investment Month is July
To reinforce the July narrative, we have taken information provided by our friends at Stock Trader’s Almanac (Jeffrey Hirsch), who have provided additional information below regarding the returns for July from the past 21 years.On average, over the last 21 years, nearly all of July’s gains have occurred in the first 13 trading days. Once a bullish day, the last trading day of July has had a bearish bias over the last 21 years. In the election years since 1950, July has tended to be a dull month filled with choppy trading. See below:Last week, we mentioned that one of the reasons we believe the stock market has performed so well is due to the earnings of the S&P 500 companies coming in well above expectations. We have also commented that until earnings turn flat or begin to decelerate, it is unlikely that the market will nosedive beyond a normal correction.

Global Earnings Trends


And the Winner is the Retail Investor
The winner is the retail investor, according to the latest data from AAII (American Association of Individual Investors). Retail investors have been putting their investable assets into the market. Retail investor stock/cash allocations are at their highest/lowest since November 2021. See below:

There are Lots of Winners
There seems to be a large number of winners. However, there are also a large number of concerns that still plague this market. Many analysts and Wall Street managers continue to talk about how unhealthy the markets are with just a few issues, as referenced above, driving the stock market’s return. We call this negative breadth, and numerous sources believe this is setting the market up for a near-term potential correction.

Relative Strength Comparisons


Performance vs. Breadth


Nasdaq Highs vs. Lows
But the winner is that, historically, there are bright spots in the overall market, which leads Ryan Detrick of Carson Investment Research to continue to write that we should see additional new highs soon. 

New Highs
One of the key indicators that both Ryan and our own models rely upon is new highs. As he so precisely put it, new highs often lead to more new highs (a healthier market as opposed to some of the charts/graphs you reviewed above).During 2024, there has been a persistent number of new highs. Remember that during all of 2022 and 2023, the S&P 500 made a whopping total of one new all-time high. So far, there have been 31 new all-time highs for the first six months of 2024. This year is second only to 2021 in this millennium. See chart below:

What Does an Abundance of New Highs Mean? 
When the S&P 500 had 20 or more all-time highs at the midpoint, the rest of the year has always had at least one more new high. In actuality, the market averaged another 20 new highs the second half of the year.Turning to returns, the median rest-of-the-year return had a very impressive 9.6%. This is well above the median return for all years of 5.6%. This means that we could very likely see more new all-time highs during the remainder of 2024 and a continued profitable period for all those retail folks participating in the markets (as evidenced above).See the chart below of what historically has occurred when we have this many new all-time highs so far in the middle of the year:

And Who Could the Winner Be? You, the Investor
Lastly, when the S&P 500 was up double digits at the midpoint of the year, the second half of the year did better than most years. In fact, the full year has never been lower, with an average gain of 25% for the entire year.The final six months tend to have a very impressive median gain of 9.8%, when the first six months are well above 10%. More importantly, the second half returns are well above the returns of all years, and have been higher nearly 83% of the time. See final chart below: Now, here are some other factors that may have played a part in the week’s trading. Thanks for reading. Wishing you a good, profitable, and enjoyable week ahead. Stay safe out there.

Risk On

Neutral

Risk Off

More By This Author:Fed Rhetoric Spooks The Markets, Yet Technology Stocks Move HigherThe Debate Continues – Will They, Or Won’t They?The Fed, Interest Rates and Jobs Sway the Markets. Which Direction Are We Headed?