The interest in AI that led the stock market rally over the first half of the year was replicated in private market transactions.
Actively-traded companies within the private market are showing an uptick in trading activity, although IPOs continue to lag behind pandemic-era numbers.
The first half of 2024 was a relief for investors in the private market as activity picked up from the stall that marked the previous two years, with assets delivering positive returns with relatively low volatility, according to a new report by Forge, a private market analysis firm.
The Stock Market Outperforms Private Markets By Threefold: For the first six months of the year, the Forge Private Market Index grew 5.4%, about a third of the rate of growth of the S&P 500 in the same period. The latter added roughly 15% during the first six months and was up 19% since January by midday Friday.
In June, this difference became more noticeable, with the private market index losing 0.2% and the S&P 500 up by 3.47%.
The S&P 500 is closely monitored through ETFs such as the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY), Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:VOO), and iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:IVV), which provide various avenues for investment in the S&P 500’s comprehensive performance.
The private market fund is also lagging behind the Nasdaq Composite, which added 21% in the first six months and ...