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Caution Ahead
When it comes to taking our short term investing clues from talking heads, no matter what’s happening in the market for every one whose head nods up and down another shakes theirs side to side.
So in this world of nobody knows for sure what’s going to happen day-to-day, if you were to take a step back and look out over the past few months some basic clues do show their heads and ought not be overlooked.
For openers, don’t discount the fact that the major indices are and have been losing ground since reaching new all-time highs in August and September. Or, that the Fed has increased interest rates three times thus far this year with one more increase expected in December. Both represent ouches of sorts for equities.
As a result, Jeremy Siegel, professor of finance at Wharton, who typically wears a bull’s cap, is now waving a yellow caution flag to investors with respect to the markets performances through this year and in 2019.
Re a rising interest rate environment, Cresset Wealth Advisors Jack Ablin said: “ It is going to put some headwind on risk-taking which of course has enjoyed “only-child’ stature for the last 10 years.”
Through in the fact that America’s national debt has balooned, things on Wall Street aren’t as rosey as some heads would like us to believe.
That said, with caution in the wind, look out five or 10 years from now, and if we haven’t accidentially blown ourselves up or been invaded by aliens who don’t care about money or investing, interest rates and the major equity indices ought to be higher than they currently are. Perhaps.
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Market Quick Glance
Round and around and around she goes and where she stops nobody knows.
Depending upon the time of day or the day of the week you decide to check in on what’s happening in the markets, the performance results found could either be pleasing or confounding.
Below are the weekly and 1-year index performance results for the four major indices—DJIA, S&P 500, NASDAQ and the Russell 2000— including the dates each reached new highs. Data is according to CNBC.com and based on prices at the close of business on Friday, Oct. 19, 2018.
–DJIA 2.93% YTD up a tad from previous week’s return of 2.51%.
- 1 yr Rtn 9.85% down again from the previous week 10.94 %
Most recent DJIA a new ALL-TIME CLOSING HIGH was reached on Oct.3, 2018 of 26,951.81. The previous high was reached on Sept. 21, 2018 of 26,796.16.
-S&P 500 3.52 % YTD up a hair from last week’s 3.50%
- 1 yr. Rtn 8.03% down from last week’s 8.48%
The S&P 500 reached a BRAND NEW CLOSING ALL-TIME HIGH on Sept. 21, 2018 of 2,940.91. The previous closing high was reached on August 29, 2018 of 2,916.50.
-NASDAQ 7.90% YTD down from last week’s 8.60%
- 1yr Rtn 12.78% down from last week’s 13.74%
Nasdaq reached a BRAND NEW 52-week CLOSING HIGH on August 30, 2018 of 8,1333.30. The previous high was reached on August 24, 2018 of 7,949.71.
-Russell 2000 0.43% YTD down from last week’s 0.73% (it was over 10% two weeks ago)
- 1yr Rtn 2.65% down from last week’s 2.76%
The Russell 2000 reached a BRAND NEW 52-week ALL-TIME HIGH on August 31, 2018 of 1,742.09. The previous high was reached on August 24, 2018 of 1,726.97.
-Mutual funds
The market moved up a bit and that positive move was reflected within the mutual fund world.
At the close of business on Thursday, Oct. 18,2018, the average total return for funds that fall under the U.S. Diversified Equity Funds heading was 2.36%, according to Lipper. That’s higher than the 1.13% average return posted one week prior.
While the average performance of the U.S. Diversified Equity Funds was above water, that’s not been the case for the other types of equity funds that Lipper tracks.
So even though y-t-d numbers have improved slightly, the following broad categories of funds have y-t-d average performances that are still underwater.
Below is a comparison of the 10/18 total returns from the previous week’s numbers:
-Sector Equity Funds, on 10/18 enjoyed an average return of -1.59, and improved from the previous week of -2.51%
-World Equity Funds, an average return of -9.30, a bit of an improvement from the prior week’s return of -9.73%
-Mixed Asset Funds, -1.61% is an improvement from the prior week’s return of -2.11%
-Domestic L-T Fixed Income Funds, now- 0.67% is an improvement from prior week’s average return of -0.80%
-World Income Funds, -4.41% is an improvement from the prior week’s average return of-4.86%.
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.
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City Opportunities
If San Francisco and New York City are your kind of cities, a report of Glassdoor shows they don’t necessarily offer the best prospects for jobs—and we all know that the cost of living in either can be astronomical.
On the other hand, Glassdoor results show that it’s the smaller cities where work can be found. Add to that the bonus of a lower cost of living it all the makes smaller cities worth looking into.
In case you’re interested, here are the top five cities in Glassdoor’s list of the 25 best cities for jobs in 2018:
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Louis, MO
- Indianapolis, IN
- Cincinnati, OH
- Hartford, CT
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