After months of new highs driven by a white-hot tech market, July was a different story. The S 500 gained about 3.5% in the first half of the month -- business as usual for 2024 it seemed -- but went on to lose more than 2.5% from its peak by the time the month closed out.

This sell-off wasn't exactly a sell-off, however. That is, the money wasn't leaving the market so much as being moved to other parts of the market.

Expectations around a shift in monetary policy by the Federal Reserve as well as months of monster gains for a concentrated group of megacap companies led investors to begin shifting focus to mid- and small-cap companies. In fact, while the S 500 gained less than 1% and the Nasdaq-100 lost 1.6%, the S SmallCap 600 gained nearly 11% in July.

Continue reading

Source Fool.com