For the week ending Feb. 6, 2016
- The monkey and football.
Monday, February 8 is a big day for the Chinese and football fans. Not sure which order to put them in, so I’ll begin with the one with the longest history.
February 8 marks the beginning of Chinese New Year and this year it is the Year of the Monkey. If you’re wondering what that can mean money-wise, well, the news isn’t great.
According to feng shui master Chen Shuaifu, “In 2016 we will see a big slide in the world economy,” he warns. “The global economic situation will be terrible and lots of companies will be bankrupted.”
Yikes! But there’s good news, too.
While Shuaifu recommends postponing important financial decisions for those born in the Year of the Monkey, he also said, “It’s a good year for people to give birth and to look for love…..Babies born in the Year of the Monkey are regarded as very hardworking and lucky.”
Whew!
As for football: Given that millions of people are unable to get out of bed and into work the day after the Big Game and a full and night of football partying, you’d think the powers that be would make the Monday following Super Bowl Sunday a national holiday.
Suggest that to your Congress person.
- Market Quick Glance
-Indices:
Below are year-to-date performance figures for the major indices through February 5, 2016 according to Bloomberg. To provide a broader performance perspective, 1-year retuns have been added.
-Dow Jones -6.79% YTD
1yr Rtn -6.79 %
-S&P 500 -7.84% YTD
1yr Rtn -6.59%
-NASDAQ -12.761%YTD
1yr Rtn -6.89%
-Russell 2000 -13.15% YTD
1yr Rtn -17.09%
-Mutual funds
Through Thursday, February 4, 2016 the average U.S.Diversified Equity fund was down 7.45 percent, according to Lipper. Over the past 52 weeks, the average performance for this group of 8,449 funds was down 8.91 percent.
Sector Equity Funds were down an average of 5.14 percent for that same week, World Income Funds off 6.92 percent and Mixed Asset Funds down 3.92 percent.
Visit www.allaboutfunds.com for weekly updates to see how 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.
-Money Love
With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, do your best not to confuse love with money. Why? Because studies show that there is an awful lot of financial infidelity going on between spouses and partners, these days. And that ain’t exactly love.
Of course I think that’s nothing new. But somehow others like to read official reports before they believe it to be so.
So, according to recent poll results from CreditCards.com study,” About 13 million Americans could be maintaining secret bank accounts, or credit cards without their partners knowledge.”
My suggestion: You’d better think twice about asking your sweetie to marry you on Valentine’s Day unless you’ve had The Talk.
That would be the one where the two of you sit down to discuss how you feel about money, how the bills will be paid and money to be spent and saved, etc.
No matter how young or old you are, or how many times you have or have not been married, or shared a residence with a love, that money talk is the most important must-have conversation a couple will ever have.
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allaboutfundsdotcom 