July 9, 2025

Written by: Ryan Kelly, CFA®
Chief Investment Officer, Legato Financial Group

Half of 2025 has come and gone.

The S&P 500 is up 6.2% through the first half of the year with Industrials and Communication Services leading the way up 12.77% and 11.10%, respectively. All sectors are positive except for Health Care and Consumer Discretionary. Small-cap stocks, as measured by the Russell 2000 Index, are down 1.8%. The MSCI All Country World ex US Index is up 18.3% YTD, however, much of that return is due to weakening of the dollar. The US “greenback” is down 9.12% YTD.

The Bloomberg US Aggregate Index, a broad-based bond index, returned 4.0% during the first half of the year with yields on the 2-year, 3-year, and 5-year Treasuries all dropping by over 0.5%. Interestingly, Treasuries have rallied nearly across the board since a few days after Moody’s downgraded the United States’ long-term credit rating.

Over the past 3 years, the S&P 500 has increased 71.5%, international stocks returned 50.6%, and bonds rose just 7.9%. If we travel back further to 5 years, the S&P has returned 115.7%, international stocks 66.4%, and bonds a negative 3.6%.

The price of gold, as measured in US dollars per Troy ounce, has increased 26% year-to-date. As a safe-haven asset, gold has performed very well this year amid uncertainty surrounding US trade policy. President Trump recently announced a 50% tariff on copper imports that could be implemented toward the end of July/early August. Following this announcement, copper futures rose 13%.

Past performance is not indicative of future results. The material above has been provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as legal or investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security or strategy. The investment strategy and themes discussed herein may be unsuitable for investors depending on their specific investment objectives and financial situation. Information obtained from third-party sources is believed to be reliable though its accuracy is not guaranteed, and LFG Wealth Partners, LLC , makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of the information, which should not be used as the basis of any investment decision. Information contained on third-party websites that LFG Wealth Partners, LLC  may link to are not reviewed in their entirety for accuracy and LFG Wealth Partners, LLC  assumes no liability for the information contained on these websites. Opinions expressed in this commentary reflect subjective judgments of the author based on conditions at the time of writing and are subject to change without notice. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without express written permission from LFG Wealth Partners, LLC. For more information about LFG Wealth Partners, LLC , including our Form ADV brochures, please visit https://adviserinfo.sec.gov and search for our firm name.

S&P 500 – measures the performance of 500 widely held stocks in US equity market. Standard and Poor’s chooses member companies for the index based on market size, liquidity and industry group representation. Included are the stocks of industrial, financial, utility, and transportation companies. Since mid-1989, this composition has been more flexible and the number of issues in each sector has varied. It is market-capitalization weighted.