After a pretty awful year for investment markets in 2022 as inflation surged and interest rate hikes kicked in, stocks staged something of a recovery this year.
There could be more of that to come in the early months of 2024 as investors await the start of the unwinding of interest rate hikes by central banks globally.
But if people had invested in stocks at the start of this year, chances are that they would be sitting on a nice gain by now.
The S&P 500 was up by just over 20% by the end of November while the tech heavy Nasdaq had made a gain of 37% in the first eleven months of the year.
But it was not all plain sailing though and there were quite a few dips and ascents in what was a fairly volatile year - much of it driven by speculation around the path of interest rates.
Markets are now poised for rates to go in the other direction with speculation focusing on a rate cut in Europe as early as March with the US to follow in the summer.
Paul Sommerville, of Sommerville Advisory Markets, gives his views on the markets for 2024.
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