By: Live Oak Private Wealth
“The best way to measure your investing success is not by whether you’re beating the market but by whether you’ve put in place a financial plan and a behavioral discipline that are likely to get you where you want to go.”
-Benjamin Graham
Any number of things could have derailed the equity markets in the first six months of 2023. Despite a banking crisis, the threat of a U. S. debt default, and more rate increases from the Federal Reserve, the markets climbed a “wall of worry” with the S&P rising by 16.9%. Investors have been encouraged by the fact that the Fed’s rate increases haven’t ended the economic expansion. First quarter GDP increased at a rate of approximately 2% annualized, above the consensus estimate of 1.3%. About the time of the Silicon Valley bank collapse, investors’ attention shifted back to the old leaders, mega-cap technology. Mega-cap tech companies have fortress balance sheets and would likely be less impacted by tightening credit than other areas of the market. More importantly, mega-cap tech companies are expected to benefit from artificial intelligence (AI), which overnight, became all the rage and focus of the markets.
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