2024 was in many respects a continuation of the market volatility that we have seen since 2020. With reasonable moderation in inflation data, the Federal Reserve Board (the “Fed”) at the end of the year began to lower its target for the Fed Funds rate. The market had been anticipating that and shorter-term interest rates began declining earlier. On the other hand, as the prospect for a recession declined, longer term interest rates increased. This improved outlook also led market spreads to decline, approaching, or even going lower, than where they were at the beginning of 2022 and 2023.