The Nasdaq recovered a significant amount of lost ground from last year with a year to date return o

The Major Markets broke their losing streak with gains in all five indices. The Nasdaq held the greatest gains as it exceeded 2.5%, but even the lowest performer saw a gain of 1.66% in the Emerging Market space. For the S&P 500, nearly two percentage point gain was a welcome break to the three consecutive weeks of losses. At the end of last week, the Nasdaq recovered a significant amount of lost ground from last year with a year to date return of 11.68%. This stands as nearly double the next best, year to date gain in the MSCI World Index which held a 5.97% return. From a technical perspective, while many had been concerned about whether or not the S&P 500 would stay above the 4,000 level, technical analysts were more focused on how the index would trade around the 50 and 200-day moving averages. The S&P 500 fell back below the 50-day moving average at the close of February after breaking through and staying mostly above this moving average since mid-January. However, he index managed to remain above the 200-day moving average on a closing basis last week. From an economic perspective, last week was filled with many economic reports that held mixed outlooks for the markets. The week kicked off with the results of the Durable Goods Orders which fell below estimates for January. Meanwhile, pending home sales greatly exceeded estimates, as the headline reading came back with an 8.1% increase month over month when home-buyers jumped at the chance to lock in rates at a slightly softer level in January. The data from National Association of Realtors reflected the largest monthly increase since June of 2020. At Leap Wealth, we are here to help our clients manage through all the highs and lows. Contact us today to learn more.