Global capital markets mostly rallied in the first half of 2024. Bitcoin soared 43% while gold future jumped nearly 13%.
The S&P 500 scored a double-digit gain as it ended June near its all-time closing peak. The index has climbed 14.5% so far this year on the back of soaring Big Tech stocks, posting a historically strong gain for the first half of a year as the U.S. economy continues to expand despite signs of slowing.
A small group of Big Tech stocks have propelled the S&P 500's jump in 2024, with shares of artificial-intelligence chip maker Nvidia Corp. $(NVDA)$ surging 149.5% so far this year. Other heavyweights in the widely followed equities index - including Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc. $(GOOGL)$ $(GOOG)$, Amazon.com Inc. $(AMZN)$ and Microsoft Corp. $(MSFT)$ - have also posted outsize gains so far this year.
The unstoppable march of the mega caps, sloth-like central bank pivots, political palpitations aplenty and M&A is back - the first half of 2024 has been another whirlwind in world markets.
MSCI's 47-country world stocks index has clocked up a punchy 11 per cent since January. Good yes, but nowhere near the 30 per cent leap of team tech, or the frankly eye-popping 150 per cent gain of chip champ Nvidia.
Bitcoin, Gold Shine
The big story in commodities has been cocoa sky-rocketing almost 85 per cent due to shortages which is already its second-biggest annual leap of all time, although certainly is not good news for chocoholics.
Gold hit a record high of just shy of $2,450 an ounce last month. Oil is up a respectable 12 per cent while bitcoin broke though $70,000 and set a flurry of new highs after U.S. watchdogs gave bitcoin exchange-traded funds the green light.