September 2024 in returns

September 2024 reversed August almost exactly, and did it with the broadest crypto participation in the entire record. 69 of 76 coins finished green — 91% — as Bitcoin rose 7.4%, Solana 12.7% and Ethereum 3.5%. The tail did the real work: Sui gained 122.9%, dogwifhat 62.2%, Pepe 37.7% and Bonk 37.5%, precisely the names August had crushed. Equities advanced quietly alongside, the Nasdaq up 2.7% and the S&P 500 2.0%, with 579 of 865 stocks (67%) higher and gold adding 5.1%.

The more durable development was in equities, where a theme appeared that would run for years: power. Vistra gained 39.1% and Constellation Energy 32.2%, joined by natural gas futures (+37.4%) — the market beginning to price the electricity that AI data centres would need, rather than the chips inside them. Rocket Lab (+55.2%) and AppLovin (+40.6%) led on their own merits, and the losers were unremarkable and shallow, the worst being Rentokil at -24.6%. A month where the punished recover hardest and nothing much breaks is usually a market catching its breath. This one was: the two months that followed would be far less symmetrical.