The last two weeks of August are notoriously quiet in the markets.
It’s a traditional holiday period in many countries, including the US, and people take a break between now and Labor Day (September 1st this year), which marks the end of the US summer, as far as businesses are concerned.
Labor day starts the countdown to the winter holidays that include Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the Black Friday sales, that kick off a shopping season which is critically important for many retailers
We can’t ignore the start of new academic terms either, and there is always something of a” back to school" atmosphere in the markets, post Labor Day.
Of course the latter part of August isn’t completely without excitement of its own
For example we have the annual gathering of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Which kicks off on the 21st of August.
This year's meeting is given added spice, thanks to the fractious relationship between President Trump and Fed Chair, Jeroeme Powell.
The central bank is meant to operate independently of the central government.
And whilst there will always be some crossover, the White House is not meant to pressurise the Fed when it comes to monetary policy and interest rates.
Nor is it normal for a serving President to resort to name calling, when talking about the country’s senior banker.
However, President Trump is far from the norm where politicians are concerned.
Earnings wind-down
We will also see the last of Q2 earnings season over the remainder of the month.
Many large US retailers including Walmart WMT US, will report in this period, part of a cohort of 463 companies of various sizes, that are due to report over the next week.
Year to date
As we head into the final quarter of 2025, it's not a bad idea to take stock of what’s happened over the year to date.
Which we can do by looking at the table below, which tracks the performance of the S&P 500 sectors as well as the index itself.
We can the contrast that performance, with this table which looks at asset class returns across the globe in US dollar terms, year to date.
Winner and losers
Source: Bank of America Research
The gains achieved in certain European equity markets would put many tech stocks to shame.
Greece might be a tricky market to trade, but Spain and Italy are well developed, well researched and comparatively liquid markets, with active Index CFDs for example.
The lesson here is that we shouldn’t be afraid to think/look outside the box
The media, both mainstream and social, is flooded with comments about the Magnificent 7 or other large US companies, particularly if there is a whiff of an AI related story, however tenuous.
However, I can’t recall too many stories or headlines about the performance of Blue-Chip equities in Athens, Madrid or Milan.
The media misses stories that are closer to home as well.
As I recently highlighted in this Linkedin post, about the social media and special interest group platform, Reddit RDDT US
Source: Darren Sinden / LinkedIn
Reddit is the 7th best performing stock in the Russell 1000 index year to date.
Source: Barchart.com
Maybe you could use some of the downtime, in what’s left of August, to search for opportunities like this.
They are not easy to find, but it’s not impossible either, as my comments on Linkedin show.
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