Founded in 1981, Sit Investment Associates is a privately held, multi-billion-dollar asset management firm that provides focused investment management expertise, competitive long-term results, and unparalleled service to our clients.
Sit Investment Associates is one of the largest independent, minority-owned investment firms in the U.S. For over 40 years our success has been built on long-term client relationships, which in turn are built on a foundation of trust, commitment, understanding, and expertise. We take pride in serving as a true extension of our clients’ operations. Our highly experienced and knowledgeable investment professionals work directly with clients providing highly individualized service in an increasingly challenging economic and financial environment.
We employ a disciplined, fundamental, research-driven investment process guided by highly experienced and knowledgeable senior investment professionals who interact directly with our clients. As a result, our clients can count on the firm to achieve highly competitive results, coupled with exceptional client service.
We view investing as the practice of applying a consistent philosophy and collaborative decision-making process driven by disciplined, fundamental research. Our broad top-down analysis in tandem with extensive bottom-up analysis enables us to identify, assess and understand the securities in which we invest.
In August, the U.S. stock market retraced some of the prior two month’s broad gains on investor fears that still-robust economic momentum may compel the Fed to hike again and keep interest rates “higher for longer.” Accordingly, the 10-year Treasury yield climbed to a 16-year high of +4.34 percent before closing the month at +4.09 percent (rising again so far in September). Bond proxy stocks (e.g., utilities and consumer staples) fared the worst during the month, while energy was the only S&P 500 sector to generate a positive return as oil prices moved higher.
The S&P 500 Index backslid by -1.59 percent in August compared to the Russell 1000 Growth’s -0.90 percent decline, bringing year-to-date returns to +18.73 percent and +32.17 percent, respectively. Led by a bounce in Nvidia shares, the so-called “Magnificent Seven” stocks (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla) significantly outperformed again in the back half of August. Year to date, those seven stocks produced a combined year-to-date return of +65.8 percent on a market-cap-weighted basis versus +7.1 percent for the rest of the S&P 500 Index.
Hoping for a Goldilocks scenario and a soft landing, investors flipped from worrying the economy will become too cold to worrying it is too hot. Led by a significant upside in July retail sales and industrial production versus the consensus expectation, the Citi Economic Surprise Index rose to its highest level since February 2021. We expect market volatility will rise into year-end, providing attractive opportunities for stock pickers.
For our latest full Global Investment Outlook & Strategy Update, download the pdf document.
Our broad array of investment products encompasses the complete risk spectrum – from capital preservation to capital appreciation—enabling us to meet our clients’ entire range of investment objectives.
We are committed to a disciplined, fundamental, research-driven investment process. As a result, clients can count on the firm to achieve highly competitive results in tandem with exceptional client service.
Sit Mutual Funds is a family of mutual funds covering the entire risk spectrum, from stability of principal to high growth and grounded in our well-defined, hands-on management style and disciplined investment process.