•It’s time to go to Europe
Lots of talk about the strength of the U.S. Dollar and one major sized plus of its current value that’s not getting much attention is that your greenback will buy more when traveling across the pond.
So, If you love Europe and would like to take advantage of exchange rates —on currencies such as the euro and British Pound Sterling— their exchange rates are attractive.
Given that exchange rates are always changing, as of Jan.9 around 9:30 a.m., here’s a look at the EUR-USD rate 1.0528, according to Bloomberg. And the BPS (GPS-USD) rate of 1.226.
Flipped those exchange rates read like this: EUR, 0.95 and GBP,0.815.
Happy spending and safe travels.
•Market Quick Glance
The first week of the New Year was off to a positive start for all four indices followed. And that’s the good news.
The uncertain news is what’s to follow.
With an economy that some say is heating up and other’s cooling down, inflation a concern for all and a new president with a bullying style and
not always known for keeping his word, what’s in store for Wall Street in 2017 is anyone’s guess.
I’m hoping for the positive.
On that note, below are the weekly and 1-year performance results for four popular stock indices based on the close of business prices on Friday, Jan.6, according to Bloomberg.
-Indices:
-Dow Jones +1.07% YTD
- 1yr Rtn +25.44%
P/E Ratio 18.96
-S&P 500 +1.76% YTD
- 1yr Rtn +21.08%
P/E Ratio 20.36
-NASDAQ +2.58% YTD
- 1yr Rtn +20.51%
P/E Ratio 34.39
-Russell 2000 +0.76% YTD
- 1yr Rtn +32.67%
P/E Ratio 49.42
-Mutual funds
The New Year brought with it positive results for the average U.S. Diversified Equity Fund, too. At the close of business on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, the average return for the 8,471 funds that come under that broad heading was up 1.39%, according to Lipper.
Curiously, it was Equity leverage Funds, there are 200 of them tracked, that scored the best—up on average 4.73%. The lowest returns? Specialty Diversified Equity Funds, up 0.73% followed by last year’s winner, Small-Cap Value Funds, up 0.96%. In 2016, Small-Cap Value Funds’ scores were the highest with the average return up 27.25%.
Visit www.allaboutfunds.com for more information about how various equity and fixed-income funds have rewarded investors over the short-and long-term, based upon Lipper data. Short-term meaning weekly and monthly performance returns; longer-term includes quarterly, year-to-date, 1-yr, 2-yr, 3-yr and 5-yr returns.
•Vanguard brings in big big bucks
If you’ve ever wondered where some investor money is going, it’s to the Vanguard Group. They are the largest mutual fund manager around and in 2016 brought in $305 billion beating their 2015 take of $276.4 billion.
According to Vanguard representative, John Woerth, most of that money went into Vanguard index funds although about $50 billion made its way into that fund family’s actively managed stock and bond funds.
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