Running an Empire

By Matthew Gutierrez and Shawn O'Malley · October 14, 2024

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As this bull market turns two years old, stocks look as strong as ever. The S&P 500 has gained nearly 22% this year, and earnings have continued to impress.

Nvidia helped lead the way and just crossed $3.4 trillion in market cap — it’s now up ~186% year-to-date.

“The Big 4 macro tailwinds (stimulus, resilient growth, disinflation, and healthy corporate performance) are all still in place, and they’re powerful enough to overcome rich valuations and geopolitical risks, keeping the SPX on an upward trajectory,” Adam Crisafulli, founder of Vital Knowledge, said in a note on Sunday.

— Matthew & Shawn

Here’s today’s rundown:

Today, we'll discuss the biggest stories in markets:

• The family that went against the grain
• America’s new millionaire class

This, and more, in just 5 minutes to read.

POP QUIZ

Most years don’t come with average stock market returns. How many times in the last 74 years did stocks finish the year between 8-10%? (Scroll to the end to find out)

Chart(s) of the Day

Together With Masterworks

Through COVID, soaring inflation, and today’s crushing interest rates, a group of enterprising investors have collectively entrusted one billion dollars from their portfolios to Masterworks’ art investing platform.

Why? Because the contemporary art Masterworks offers—from legends like Picasso and Banksy—has demonstrated a low correlation to the stock market, inflation resistance, and exceptional appreciation potential. Not to mention Masterworks has completed 23 successful exits to date, distributing over $60+ million in net proceeds to investors in those offerings.

These investors didn’t need art expertise to diversify with blue-chip art, because Masterworks does all the heavy lifting, finding artists with appreciation potential (buying <3% of works offered) and then breaking an art offering into shares for you. If Masterworks sells a piece again for a profit, investors get a return. With 3 illustrative sales, Masterworks investors have realized net annualized returns of +17.6%, +17.8%, and +21.5%.*

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