The S&P 500 is up 19.4% for the year, while the Nasdaq Composite has jumped by 36.3%, partially driven by excitement over new artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and a reversal of a sharp sell-off in tech stocks in 2022. Most prognosticators now expect the Federal Reserve to begin lowering interest rates next year, which should offer some support to growth stocks that had been hard hit by the Fed's campaign to rein in inflation. Real estate stocks, in general, have been hit hard by the Fed's interest-rate hikes, which caused mortgage rates to soar, cooling down the housing market.