The September Effect - Sunday Roundup, September 8, 2024

Fall may soon be upon us, but the memories of summer volatility still linger. August’s volatility blip has not proved serious enough to derail the market’s year-to-date performance, but Bloomberg said investors may need to prepare for stormier weather. September, a month notorious for its negative seasonality, is off to a terrible start on Wall Street. Steven Desmyter, president at Man Group, called it the cruelest month for markets, highlighting that September is the only month with a negative average return since 1926. As to what is so bad about September, theories abound.