OUR APPROACH
OUR APPROACH
Insights
Market Highlights
July marked another positive month for the stock market. The S&P 500 rose roughly 2.2%; it was the third consecutive monthly gain. July saw 10 new all time highs and brought the year to date S&P 500 return (at month end) to 7.8%. Strong corporate earnings, notably in the information technology sector, drove the market.
August 12, 2025
Of the asset classes we follow, the best performing one for the month was Growth Stocks (Russell 3000 Growth) with a 8.6% return. The worst performing was Commodities (Bloomberg Commodity Index) with a -0.9% return.
S&P groups similar companies into 11 sectors; when we dig into the S&P 500's performance, we find that 10 of the sectors were up, 4 of them were up by more than 5%. Only 1 was down and it was down by more than 5%. The best performing sector was Information Technology with a 10.8% return. The biggest contributor to this outperformance was NVIDIA Corp, which is the second largest stock in the sector and had a return of 24.1%. The second best performing sector was Communication Services with a 9.6% return. The biggest contributor to this outperformance was Meta Platforms Inc, the largest stock in the sector, with a return of 17.9%.
Meanwhile, Health Care posted the worst return at -5.7%. The biggest contributer to this underperformance was Eli Lilly adn Co, which is the largest stock in the sector and had a return of -17.9%. The second worst performing sector was Energy with a 0.3% return. The bigggest contributor to tis underperformance was Exxon Mobil Corp, which is the largest stock in teh sector and had a return of -3.2%.
Looking Ahead
Looking forward, since 1951, the S&P 500 has an average return in the month of August of -0.1%; this is worse than the average return of all months, which is 0.7%. This makes August the month with the third worst average returns.
Thoughts from The Team
You have likely heard of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) that recently went into effect. The legislative package included some important tax updates. Below, you will find a chart of various tax provisions that might pertain to you. The chart shows the tax details prior to OBBB and post-OBBB (current law).
There are many new income phaseouts that apply to some of the most commonly used deductions. You may be impacted by these changes and they are important for tax planning purposes. Please consult your tax advisor to discuss how you may be impacted.
Be Well,
Disclaimers
The information contained herein, including summary/prices/quotes/statistics have been obtained from sources we believe to be reliable, but we do not guarantee its accuracy or completeness. Due to various factors, including changing market conditions and/or applicable laws, the content may no longer be reflective of current opinions or positions. Any comparison to a benchmark is for comparative purposes only and actual account composition may differ. Investments cannot be made directly into an index. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Past results are not indicative of future returns. This material is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as and may not be relied on in any manner as, legal, tax or investment advice, a recommendation, or as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to purchase or a recommendation of any interest in any fund or security. This material does not intend to address the financial objectives, situation or specific needs of any individual investor.
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