POCKETBOOK: Week ending June 1, 2018

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•More bull?

Wall Street’s talking heads are never at a loss of words. Or outlooks. Here’s what one bull sees.

Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research thinks that there is still plenty of money to be made in this market, has a S&P 500 index year-end target price of 3100 —that’s 13% above where it stands today—and sees the small-cap rally continuing.

In a recent CNBC.com story, Yardeni said, “Small cap stocks are on fire, at record highs, because they are not as exposed to the global economy in currency and protectionism.”

And, he’s  not alone in his small-cap rally thinking.

We shall see.

 

• Market Quick Glance

It’s been a small-cap world for anyone paying attention to the NASDAQ and Russell 2000 indices as each has made some nice strides in a positive direction lately and last week.

Below are the weekly and 1-year index performance results for four major indices— including the dates each reached new highs—according to CNBC.com based on prices at the close of business on Friday, June 1, 2018.

–DJIA -0.34% YTD once again back into minus territory from the previous week’s

+0.14%.

•1 yr Rtn 16.51% down from the previous week’s 19.61%

• Most recent DJIA all-time high was reached on January 26, 2018 of 26,616.71. The previous high was reached January 18, 2018 was 26,153.42.

 

-S&P 500 2.28% YTD up from last week’s 1.78%

• 1 yr Rtn 12.53% down a tad from last week’s 12.68%

The S&P 500 reached its most recent all-time high on January 26, 2018 of 2,872.87. The previous high was reached on January 19, 2018 of 2810.33.

 

-NASDAQ 9.43% YTD up a heap from last week’s 7.68%

• 1yr Rtn 20.93% up from last week’s 19.80%

NASDAQ reached a brand new all-time high on March 13, 2018 of 7,637.27. The previous high was reached on March 9, 2018 of 7,560.81.

 

-Russell 2000 7.32% YTD a jump up from last week’s 5.95%

• 1yr Rtn 18.05% down from last week’s 17.60%

The Russell 2000 reached an all-time high on January 24, of 1,615.52. The previous high was reached on January 16, 2018 of 1,604.02.

 

-Mutual funds

Your basic equity fund lost a little ground last week.

The average performance of the funds under the U.S. Diversified Equity Funds heading had a total return of 2.84% year-to-date at the close of business on Thursday, May 31, 2018. That’s lower than it was one week before, (May 26), it was 3.34%.

It’s been a Small-Cap Growth funds’ world lately as the average y-t-d return for them clocked in at 10.75% last Thursday. That’s up from the previous week.

Science & Tech funds with home grown as well as global companies in their portfolios continue to do well, too.

Not so hot have been World Equity Funds—the average one’s return was underwater at -0.86% last week.

World Income Funds have fared worse with the average y-t-d total return of the 750 funds that fall under this heading of -2.57%.

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.

 

• Our poor kids
  

No matter how great you think last week’s job report was, or how great you think the economy is, if you step back and take an objective view, President Trump’s personal business management style for America has rewarded the wealthy far more than it has the middle, and lower classes.

Philip Alston, a U.N. human rights investigator released a report that he will present to the United Nations Human Rights Council later this month, pointed out that while Trump has cut benefits and health insurance to the poor in America, his reforms have been “financial windfalls” for the mega-rich and large corporations.

Nothing new there. But what I found was of particular importance was how hard hit his policy changes have been for  our kids.

Alston said that nearly 41 million people, 12.7 percent, live in poverty in the U.S. Of them 18.5 million live in extreme poverty and one in three kids are poor.

Worse yet, he said that the United States has the highest youth poverty rate among industrialized countries.

That’s nothing to be proud about no matter what figures the Trump Administration boasts about.

 

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POCKETBOOK: Week ending May 14, 2016

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• If you’re 30 today…..

Making money takes time. Sometimes plenty of time. And even though today’s 30-year old doesn’t really deeply understand time’s real value, research from McKinsey & Co. showed that—thanks to the market’s skimpy returns of late—people that age will have to work seven years longer and/or save twice as much to have a next egg equal in size to that of someone a generation older.

• And if you’re between the ages 18 and 29…

Consider this a “But wait. There’s more” addition to the above paragraph. Turns out, young people between the ages of 18 and 29 aren’t really big fans of capitalism.

According to a Harvard University survey, 51 percent of those polled don’t support America’s money-making system. Which, from my point of view, is likely to make making money to support them during their senior years more challenging.

Then again, maybe not. After all, capitalism’s meaning has changed a lot over the years.

“The word ‘capitalism’ doesn’t mean what it used to,” said Zach Lustbader, a senior at Harvard involved in conducting the poll, which was published in The Washington Post (4/26/16). “For those who grew up during the Cold War, capitalism meant freedom from the Soviet Union and other totalitarian regimes. For those who grew up more recently, capitalism has meant a financial crisis from which the global economy still hasn’t completely recovered.”

According to John Della Volpe, a polling director at Harvard, who  interviewed another group of young people  found that they weren’t “rejecting the concept” of capitalism. What turned them off was the way  capitalism practiced today. “In the minds of young people — that’s what they’re rejecting.”

• Market Quick Glance

-Indices:

Here are the year-to-date performance figures for the major indices through May 13, 2016, according to Bloomberg. To provide a longer performance perspective, 1-year returns have been added.

-Dow Jones +1.66% YTD

1yr Rtn -1.55% (last week’s 1-yr return: + 0.04%)

-S&P 500 +0.97% YTD

1yr Rtn -1.47 % (last week’s 1-ry return: -0.67%

–NASDAQ -5.28% YTD

1yr Rtn -5.31 (last week’s 1-yr return: -4.09%)

–Russell 2000 -2.42 % YTD

1yr Rtn -10.06 % (last week’s 1-year return: -8.40%

-Mutual funds

Through Thursday, May 12, 2016 the average U.S.Diversified Equity Fund continues to loose ground ending the second week of May down –but not as much as the previous week. The average was down 0.37 percent year-to-date, according to Lipper.

The three top performing funds over the past week under this colossal heading of U.S.Diversified Equity Funds were: Equity Leveraged Funds that maintained their plus-side run, now up 4.66 percent year-to-date on average. Behind them came Equity Income Funds, up 3.66 percent, and then Mid-Cap Value Funds up 3.28 percent.

On the income side, The average World Income Fund was up over 6 percent, year-to-date.

But stil rocking the Sector Equity Funds word were Precious Metals Funds, up on average 75.64 percent as of Thursday’s close. That’s 4 percent more than the previou week’s close.

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.

• Traveling and tipping

For many, vacation time is right around the corner. If you’re like most of us, organizing a trip is one thing but figuring out who—and how much to tip—is quite another.

To help you out, below are some very reasonable tipping pointers from the world famous travel maven Peter Greenberg as presented in his Friday post at petergreenberg.com : “Common sense dictates rewarding someone for a job well done, as opposed to rewarding them simply because a tip is expected.

“Think first of the people who really do the work: housekeepers at hotels, the guy who busses your table, the rental car shuttle bus driver, the airport wheel chair attendant, etc. These are the unsung heroes—not just hotel concierges and maître d’s. They can make the most positive difference in your travel experience.

“As a rule of thumb, or at least my thumb, tip your hotel maids $5 to $10 a day—they work so hard.

“What about the shuttle bus driver? Generally, $1 is appropriate. Or, give him $2 if he’s hauling your bags on and off the bus.

“If you need a wheelchair attendant, you’re not just paying him to get you to the gate, but he’s also there waiting with you. Time is money—thank him with a $10 or $20 tip.”

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