Introduction
During the June 30, 2024 quarter, the GW Investment Institute (GWII) hosted five industry professionals across two finance classes. The semester culminated in 17 stock pitches, five startup idea presentations, and the conclusion of the first semester of the Quantitative investment project. Ten students were awarded GW Ramsey Scholars awards, three received the GWII Stock Pitch Awards brought to by the Charles Schwab Foundation, and three were recognized with GWII Leadership Awards for a total of $57,250 awarded. A quarter highlight was the NYC Alumni Reception, which successfully brought together over 30 alumni. Haya Adnan, a GWSB senior graduating in December 2024 with a major in Business, wrote the following commentary.
Market Commentary
Prepared by Haya Adnan, GW ‘24
The S&P 500 Index wrapped up strong in the second quarter of 2024, hitting record highs signaling a robust equity market. This was followed by slowing growth in non-farm payrolls and unemployment reaching a 2 ½ year peak at 4.1%, leading to heightened expectations for interest rate cuts in the third quarter. Despite inflation cooling faster than expected to 3%, moving closer to the Fed’s 2% target, the second quarter of 2024 saw none of the previously anticipated rate cuts.
Significant performance could be observed in sectors like Communication Services (9.4%), driven by Meta and Alphabet investing aggressively to build out their AI infrastructure, and Information Technology (13.8%) as Microsoft and Apple recover from a slower first quarter, and Nvidia continues its tech dominance, continuing the trend of a few exceptional stocks driving up the market. Comparatively, the Healthcare industry declined (-1.0%) in Q2, followed by Real Estate with (-1.9%) as borrowing costs remain elevated across the sector with interest rate headwinds, and the Materials industry with the most significant downturn (-4.5%), likely due to lower prices in the commodity and chemical markets.
The GWII Student Investment Fund performance for Q2 2024 was 9.7%, outperforming the S&P 500 Index by 5.4%. Individually, the GW Ramsey Fund outperformed the S&P 500 Index by 6.5% at 10.8%, the GW Phillips Fund outperformed by 3.7% at 8.0%, and The GW Quant Fund outperformed by 5.0% at 9.3%. The GW Real Estate Fund underperformed the S&P 500 Index at 0.3%; however, outperformed the FNERTR Index by 1.2%.
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