Macro Briefing: 17 July 2024

* IMF lowers its 2024 economic growth forecast for US
* A new era for the US dollar may arrive with a Trump-Vance administration
* Trump says, as president, he would let Fed Chair Powell to finish his term
* US homebuilder sentiment falls in July to lowest level since December
* US retail spending was flat in June, but…
* Retail sales ex-autos rise 0.4%, biggest monthly gain since April:

Rebalancing can boost portfolio returns, but not always, advises Morningstar’s John Rekenthaler. A key factor is the mix of assets. “Swapping between growth and value stocks remained helpful. Otherwise, though, rebalancing reduced the portfolios’ returns,” he writes. “Dividing between stocks and gold worked fairly well, as although gold’s annualized return was lower (6.5% versus 12.4% for domestic equities), the two asset classes behaved differently enough for rebalancing to close most of that gap. But, as previously written, foreign equities supplied scant diversification, while cash and bonds earned too little. Rebalancing from a high-performing asset into one that goes nowhere is almost always a losing strategy, regardless of the return pattern.”