•October:Scary or not so much?
With September nearly over and the month that celebrates All Hallows Eve right around the corner, investors could be in for a treat.
As fate would have it, well really history, ever since 1987 the S&P500 Index has averaged a 1.8% gain during the month of October, according to Dan Wiener, editor of Fund Focus Weekly.
That’s not so bad considering there isn’t a financial commentator around who can’t help telling the investing public that the month of October has historically been fraught with market downturns. It is, after all, the month the DJIA fell 22.6% on a day now remembered as Black Monday.
But look back and count and Wiener writes that over the past 28 October’s, 19 of them—68%–have rewarded investors with positive results.
Boo!
- Market Quick Glance
Lookie here: At the close of business on Friday, Sept 23, 2016, all four indices had better performance records than the week before with the Russell 2000 and Nasdaq’s year-to-date weekly returns gaining the most. And, the 1-yr year-to-date return for the Russell 2000 moved from a positive 6.9% up to 13.45%.
Below, according to Bloomberg, are last week’s closing YTD performance numbers of four popular US indices along with 1-year performance figures.
-Indices:
-Dow Jones +6.94% YTD
- 1yr Rtn +14.96%
-S&P 500 +7.63% YTD
- 1yr Rtn +14.57%
–NASDAQ +7.01% YTD
- 1yr Rtn +14.76%
–Russell 2000 +11.64% YTD
- 1yr Rtn +13.45%
-Mutual funds
Year-to-date average returns for U.S. Diversified Equity funds gained a bit over the past week as, at the close of business on Thursday, September 22, 2016, their average YTD return was 6.79%, according to Lipper. That’s a gain of more than 175 basis points from the previous week’s figures.
Under the heading of U.S. Diversified Equity Funds, Equity Leverage Funds had a YTD performance average of +25.27%. Dedicated Short Bias Funds, on the other hand, had an average YTD average return of -23.26%.
Precious Metals Equity Funds, Lipper tracks 73 of them, were now up on average over 100% YTD at 107.93%.
World Equity Funds continued to gain strength providing their shareholders with an average return of 7.74%. Latin American Funds also continued their move upward with average YTD returns of 35.19%.
Make sure to take advantage of the wonderful world of mutual fund performance figures that Lipper publishes weekly. Use their YTD returns as a guideline for how your individual fund(s) are performing. For instance, Lipper reports the average stock fund is up about 6.79 percent so far this year. Are your stock funds doing better or worse than that?
Visit www.allaboutfunds.com for weekly updates to see 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.
Lipper’s weekly performance figures for stock and fixed-income funds are at www.allaboutfunds.com in the left column on the home page.
- Listen up market worriers: Elections don’t matter much
According to Ric Edelman, former CEO of Edelman Financial Services, worrying about whether Clinton or Trump makes it into the White House isn’t likely to wreck your investment portfolio unless…..
““History is very clear on this point,” Edelman said in an interview with ETF.com. “Going back to 1948, the impact of every president on the financial markets is very clear. Presidents do not adversely affect the markets.”
The “unless” is if we are in a recession. Or, you won’t need your money for four to eight years. That’s the longest a president can remain in office.
Investors during the Nixon and Bush years, realized the pain that recessions can impose upon one’s investment portfolio.
Guess that means that going forward the big question all investors are faced with is: Is there a recession in our future? And if you think so, the next question is: Can you personally afford any market losses?
And so— without a clear cut answer in site—it goes…..
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