REPEAT: Markets hate uncertainty
This was the opening piece in last week’s POCKETBOOK but it’s worth rereading particularly given the decisions, actions and tweets of President Trump over the past week.
Funny thing about the stock market: On the one hand it looks ahead, on the other it doesn’t like uncertainty. Or social unrest and there is plenty of that going on.
So, with a new President in town, and one who takes bold actions and is hard to figure, investors would be wise to expect a fair amount of market volatility going forward. Also, that life is going to be more expensive on a number of fronts for individuals and the country.
Re the country, expect more debt..
Even though the GOP is no fan of debt, President Trump has been called the King of Debt. Which is okay when your kingdom is a privately held corporation. But not so okay when you are a public servant.
- Market Quick Glance
Once again the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed over 20,000 and at 20,071.46 on Friday, Feb. 3, 2017. Nonetheless, the Dow lost ground over the week from its previous week’s close —and— for the past year.
Looking at just the 1-year returns, the Russell 2000 appears to have been the place to be: Up over 36% for the past year. But numbers can be deceiving—the Russell 2000 hit its all time high in December 2016 unlike the other three indices followed here. Each of them reached their new highs in January.
Below are the weekly and 1-year performance results for four popular stock indices based on the close of business prices at the close of business on Friday, Feb. 3, according to CNBC.com. (I’ve changed sources here because Bloomberg.com has changed its format and, in my opinion, the new site, its look and the changes for the free user are horrible.)
-Indices:
-Dow Jones + 1.56% YTD, down a bit from last week’s 1.78%
- 1yr Rtn +22.86% down from last week’s 25.32%
The DJIA reached its all time high of 20,125.58 on 1/26/17
-S&P 500 +2.62% YTD up a bit from last week’s 2.60% YTD
- 1yr Rtn +20.86% down bit last week’s 20.86%
The S&P 500 reached its all time high of 2,300.99 on 1/26/17
-NASDAQ +5.27% YTD up a bit from last week’s 5.20%
- 1yr Rtn +25.81% way up from last week’s 24.36%
The Nasdaq reached its all time high of 5,669.61 on 1/26/17
–Russell 2000 +1.53% up from last week’s +1.05%
- 1yr Rtn +36.38% up from last week’s 34.36%
The Russell 2000 reached its all time high of1,392.71 on 12/9/16
-Mutual funds
A bit of a downer as far as the average goes for the 8,479 funds that fall under the U.S. Diversified Equity Fund umbrella. At the close of business on Thursday, Feb.2, 2017 the average year-to-date return for those funds was 1.81%, according to Lipper. That was down the previous week’s 2.61% average.
Under that broad U.S. Diversified Equity Fund heading, Equity Leverage Funds which were hotsy totsy the week before lost ground from their up 7.52% average with YTD returns now at 5.59%. Next in performance were Large-Cap Growth Funds up 4.27% followed by Multi-Cap Growth Funds, up 4.14%.
Precious Metals Equity Funds scored the highest under the Sector Fund heading, up 17.38% on average. The average YTD return for the 2,307 funds under the Sector Fund heading was up 2.48%.
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.
- Let’s talk unemployment and say “Thank You, Obama.”
When it comes to the unemployed, there are fewer of them now (on record) than there were seven years ago.
Jon Erlichman, a journalist for Fortune, the Business News Network and a number of other outlets, posted the U.S Unemployment Rates based on end of January figures.
In a nutshell, they reveal that at the end of Jan. 2010 the unemployment rate was 9.8%—at the end of Jan. 2017, that rate stood at 4.8%.
Thank you, President Obama.
The bar has now been set for President Trump, who took office officially on Jan. 20, 2017.
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allaboutfundsdotcom 