At United Asset Strategies, our mission is to be a steward to our clients and to each other, ever mindful of our clients' unique financial goals and risk tolerances.
United Asset Strategies believes that the single most important investment principle is diversification. We are committed to providing an exceptional client experience, and delivering prudent, disciplined daily money management. United is here to help you plan for the possibilities, whether that’s through our Investment Management, Wealth Management, Pension Consulting, or Insurance Services.
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United Asset Strategies Quarterly Insights: October 2023
The major market indices took a breather in the third quarter of 2023, retreating from their highs earlier in the year. As seen in Exhibit 1, each of these indices was positive in the first half of the year, and has at least partially given up those gains since, with negative low-single-digit percent total returns in the third quarter. The broad-based decline in markets occurred, despite a persistently strong macro and earnings environment, with higher interest rates the primary driver. Further, a small handful of large-cap tech stocks accounted for much of the year-to-date increase. As a result, following the pullback, the typical stock, as measured by the S&P 500 equal weight, is modestly positive for the year, while bond indices are slightly lower. While the recent pullback resembles the seasonal weakness that we normally see at this time of year, only time will tell whether the market was simply seasonally weak or if a more dire macro environment is being foreshadowed. We are still early in the fourth quarter, but so far markets have stabilized, and earnings remain strong. While we remain cautiously optimistic given the surprising macro strength, we acknowledge the wide range of future scenarios and uncertainty and have taken a balanced approach to client accounts, managing near-term risk while looking for long-term investment opportunities.
