2024 Annual Investment Review

2024 Annual Investment Review

Last Month in the Markets: December 2 – 31, 2024

Last Year in the Markets: January 2 -December 31, 2024

What happened in 2024?

Last year was productive for equity investors, with Canadian and American indexes delivering remarkable returns for the second consecutive year.  The TSX beat its 2023 performance by 10 percentage points, the S&P 500 fell just 1 percent behind last year’s stellar results, as did the Dow, and the NASDAQ more than doubled its 2023 performance in 2024.

The first quarter of 2024 was a steady climb after the first week, a short stumble in April was quickly recovered and a 3-month rise saw a 1-month decline from mid-July until early August.  Between a short dip in September and the end of December saw equity values rise steadily and deliver strong results.

Canadian investors who spend time and money in the U.S. did not enjoy the 8 percent loss in value by the Canadian dollar.  Thankfully oil prices ended the year where they began, and energy prices contributed to the overall moderating of inflation increases.

As inflation fell and job creation slowed action was taken by central banks to reduce interest rates to spur economic activity.  Tracking inflation, employment and Gross Domestic Product to predict interest rate moves was the theme for analysts and investors in 2024.