For the week ending Jan. 9, 2016
- Worst week? So what?
If you haven’t heard, the first trading week of 2016 has the distinction of being the worst first week of any year ever on Wall Street. If you’re upset by this year’s dour start, better forget long-term investing. Owning equities isn’t for those who don’t get that stock prices go up and down over time. Always have. Always will.
- Market Quick Glance
-Indices
Here’s how the major indices have performed year-to-date, YTD, through January 8, 2016 according to Bloomberg:
-S&P 500 -5.91% YTD
-Dow Jones -6.1% YTD
-NASDAQ -7.24 YTD (BTW, remember this was the only index that closed 2015 up.)
-Russell 2000 -7.88% YTD
-Mutual funds
Lipper’s year-to-date mutual fund performance figures through January 7, 2016 show:
-The average U.S. Diversified Equity Funds -4.93 percent.
-Commodity Precious Metals Funds +1.49 percent.
-Dedicated Short-bias Funds gained the most + 9.31 percent.
-Domestic L-T Fixed-Income Funds +0.11 percent.
Find all of Lipper’s weekly performance figures on both stock and fixed-income funds at www.allaboutfunds.com in the left column on the home page.
-ETF News
Investors are loving ETFs.
According to Bloomberg: “ETFs took in a grand total of about $238 billion in 2015—just shy of their annual record of $243 billion set last year. No other investment vehicle came even close to this number. It is more than the flows into index funds, active mutual funds, and hedge funds combined.”
BlackRock’s IShares brought in $106 billion outpacing Vanguard’s ETF haul of $76 billion, according to that same source.
International ETFs saw the most inflows. SPY, the most outflows.
On the other hand, Vanguard is still big on keep its fees low. InstititionalAssetManager reported Vanguard clients saved a total of USD 12.4 million as a result of lower expense ratios for 53 individual mutual fund shares, including 21 exchange-traded fund shares (ETFs).
- Turns out, when it comes to market value our secret passwords aren’t worth that much.
There seems to be no shortage of cyber crimals around. Or, computer accounts for them to hack. While that’s ugly enough, a study by TrendMicro found that passowrds for entertainment accounts with NetFlix, Hulu and Spotify can be had for as little as $2 bucks a piece.
Geez, isn’t anything sacred anymore?
-30-
allaboutfundsdotcom 