OUR APPROACH
OUR APPROACH
Insights
September 10, 2026
Market Highlights
August was another positive month for the stock market. The S&P 500 ended the month up 2.6%, the Nasdaq was up 3.9%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.3%. Market volatility marked the month; the S&P 500 hit a new all-time high early in the month but pulled back amid continued geo-political tensions and rising bond yields. The Nasdaq rebounded after being down last month; following positive earnings reports, the index saw refueled optimism across semiconductor, software and cloud-computing stocks.
Of the asset classes we follow, the best performing one for the month was Commodities (Bloomberg Commodity Index) with a 7.1% return. The worst performing was Bonds (Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate) with a 0.4% return.
S&P groups similar companies into 11 sectors; when we dig into the S&P 500's performance, we find that 5 of the sectors were up, 3 of them were up by more than 5%. Six were down and of those, 1 was down by more than 5%.
The best performing sector was Energy with a 6.5% return. The biggest contributor to this outperformance was ExxonMobil Holdings Corp., which is the largest stock in the sector and had a return of 3.5%. The second best performing sector was Information Technology with a 6.2% return. The biggest contributor to this outperformance was NVIDIA Corp., the largest stock in the sector, with a return of 10.0%.
Utilities posted the worst return and was down -5.2%. The biggest contributor to this underperformance was NextEra Energy, Inc., which is the largest stock in the sector and had a return of -5.3%. The second worst performing sector was Industrials with a -2.7% return. The biggest contributor to this underperformance was GE Aerospace, which is the second largest stock in the sector and had a return of -6.8%.
Thoughts From the Team
Betterment, an automated investment platform, recently published survey results that have generated quite a bit of buzz within the financial advice industry. According to the survey, 52% of Gen Z investors have redirected money originally intended for investing toward sports betting, and 26% view sports betting as a deliberate part of their long-term financial strategy. The figures, while somewhat lower, remain concerning among Millennials, with 31% reporting that they have redirected investment dollars to sports betting and 14% consider it part of their long-term strategy.
Short-term market movements can sometimes make investing feel similar to sports betting. However, there is one critical difference, with investing, the odds of success increase significantly over time.
The following charts illustrate the percentage of time investments have generated positive returns over various holding periods. We used the Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFINX), which tracks the S&P 500 Total Return Index, and the Vanguard Total Bond Market Fund (VBMFX), which tracks the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index. These funds are broadly diversified stock and bond index funds with some of the longest performance histories available, beginning in 1976 for VFINX and 1986 for VBMFX.
The results highlight the importance of time in the market. Stocks produced positive returns on only 54% of individual trading days, but over rolling 10-year periods, they generated positive returns 95% of the time. It is worth noting that the 5% of the time when stock returns were not positive over a 10-year rolling period were those times when the investor would have been buying during the run up to the tech bubble and then selling those investments during the bear market of the Financial Crisis. Bonds posted positive returns on 60% of individual days and were positive during 100% of rolling 10-year periods.
While short-term market outcomes can appear more unpredictable, and perhaps even feel a bit like gambling, long-term investing has historically rewarded patience. Unlike sports betting, disciplined investing in diversified portfolios has historically improved an investor's chances of success the longer they remain committed to their plan.
To highlight the power of stock investing, the following chart is similar to the one above, but rather than percent of timeframes the investor would have had positive returns, it shows the percent of time that their investment would have at least doubled in value. Over any given 10- year time period, the S&P 500 has doubled (or more) 80% of the time.
Both charts reiterate our commitment to being long term, disciplined investors.
Reminders
While we love hearing from you, we’d like to remind you to please not text any team member in a client/advisor capacity. We are a government regulated business, and the SEC prohibits us from texting with you on our personal cell phones regarding business matters. If you would like to schedule an appointment, discuss your accounts, or make any other client related inquiry, please email us or call us at (607) 391-7080. And of course - we always welcome you to stop by the office any time!
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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