Market Commentary October 2015
Stock Markets The chart to the right shows what we have had to put up with recently: all but REITs were down for the quarter (all were down since the beginning of the year), and emerging markets were downbig, showing variability over the trailing twelve months. These periods remind us that markets do go down, […]
Market Commentary July 2013
Volatility returned this quarter in both stocks and bonds as fears about the central-bank actions across the globe made investors nervous about the future. Large Cap U.S. stocks, represented by the S&P 500 Index, returned 2.9% in the second quarter, bringing the year-to-date return up to a lofty 14.0%. By contrast, the EAFE Index, a […]
Market Commentary October 2012
The equity markets finished a very strong quarter in September, erasing the losses of the second quarter, and more, pushing returns solidly into double-digit territory for the year. If the S&P 500 could hold its 16% gain through the next quarter, it would be the third best annual result of the past decade, and above […]
Market Commentary July 2012
Equity markets had a rough second quarter. For the period ending June 30, 2012 the S&P 500 index (large stocks) was down 2.8%, the Russell 2000 index (small stocks) was down 3.5%, and the MSCI EAFE index (international stocks) was down 6.9%. The international index might have seen a double-digit decline were it not for […]
Market Commentary
The Year Was Good, But Not Remarkable By Historical Standards The history books will show that 2009 was above average but an unremarkable year for stock market performance. The S&P 500 returns exceeded 26% for the calendar year, which barely qualifies as top-quartile performance as 19 of the previous 80 calendar year periods saw higher […]