How quickly things can change. Just two weeks ago, we were in the midst of an economic slowdown scare that threatened to push equity markets lower. Fast forward to today, and those concerns have been eased, largely erasing the market declines from earlier in the month.

Markets were mixed during the second quarter, though the solid start to the year helped overall first- half returns. Many of the themes that were in focus during the first quarter carried over into the second and remain areas of interest. The biggest of these are the path of monetary policy and the ongoing AI buildout. As we move through the summer and into the fall, the upcoming elections will increasingly factor into market discourse. While we generally refrain from getting too in the weeds on politics, some policy implications will be too important to ignore. The outcome of the elections, and the makeup of Congress in particular, will drive the important policy decisions that need to take place in the coming years. From a market perspective, we maintain a constructive medium-term view towards equities, even as certain areas appear stretched in the short term. On the fixed-income side, we see the likelihood of rate cuts as a positive short-term catalyst for bonds, while longer-term uncertainty has us continuing to favor less risk.