GovCon Index Hardly Moved, Wall Street Posted Best Week of 2024

Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Index stayed flat despite negative returns in three of five sessions. The index, which tracks the stock performances of 30 major government contractors, hardly moved with a negligible $0.20 uptick week-on-week to $4,880.65. Meanwhile, the three major equities indexes booked weekly gains, resulting in Wall Street’s best week thus far in 2024.

Flour Corporation (NYSE: FLR) stood out this week, gaining 6.36% overall. In Q1 fiscal 2024, the engineering and construction firm reported a 92.9% year-over-year earnings growth rate. At year-end 2023, backlog rose 13.2% to $29.44 billion from a year ago.

Science Applications International Corporation (Nasdaq: SAIC) and Accenture (NYSE: ACN) were the week’s worst performers. The stocks weighed heavily on the GovCon Index, declining 11.31% and 9.90% in five days. SAIC tumbled Monday after reporting lower revenue and income in Q4 fiscal 2024 versus Q4 fiscal 2023. Accenture fell sharply on Thursday due to a weak revenue forecast for 2024.

US Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced during his market-moving conference mid-week that the policymakers forecast three rate cuts this year. He added that the central bank would not hold off lowering rates, notwithstanding the resilient economy and strong labor market. His remarks caused the record-setting moves on Wall Street.

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