Model Commentary Archive
January 31, 2012
While many major market indices have been mostly flat since last week, we have seen some positive relative performance in small caps. The Russell 2000 is up over 2% since early trading on January 24th while the S&P 500 is essentially unchanged during the same time. This is positive in the sense that we know that small caps will outperform large caps during times of investor speculation, which should help to drive the markets higher. Additionally, we have seen a stark rally in gold since the 25th, with the price of the metal jumping as much as 6% during the last week. Financials and materials remain the top performing sectors year to date. Though financials have underperformed of late.
January 25, 2012
The market has been mostly flat over the last week. Headline risk is still evident, though much more muted than during 2011. Negative microeconomic news regarding some company earnings has thus far been offset by positive news and earnings from other companies. Meanwhile, news regarding the sovereign debt situation in Europe seems to be fading to the background. There is little reaction in market prices when European news breaks. A late day rally in the equity markets on January 25th was fueled by Federal Reserve comments regarding plans to keep interest rates low until late 2014 in an effort to help spur economic growth.
January 18, 2012
The S&P 500 has once again advanced over the last week, this time approximately 1.5% in the previous 5 trading days. The Russell 2000 added about 1.6% and the Nasdaq Composite gained about 2.4%. These gains may seem small, but over the last month the S&P 500 is up about 8.5%, while the Nasdaq is up almost 10%. The positive price action recently is also promising since it flies in the face of some negative headlines regarding an S&P ratings cut of European sovereign debt, as well as poor economic data in retail sales and jobless claims. 43% of S&P 500 companies are scheduled to release earnings data over the next 2 weeks, and early indications are that the microeconomic data should be positive.
January 11, 2012
As we mentioned last week, strong performance at the end of 2011 has continued to roll into the beginning of 2012. The S&P 500 is up over 7% since December 19th, and has increased about 2% in the last week. Investor sentiment continues to gain strength, as trading volume in the U.S. continues to increase from the anemic holiday levels back up toward normal market volume.
January 4, 2012
2011 is now in the rear view mirror and with the New Year it seems that investor sentiment has started to pick up as evidenced by the strong opening day of the year with US and International markets bouncing up with some strong gains during the first trading day of the year.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investments are subject to risk, and any of Stadion's investment strategies may lose money. Investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor's portfolio may be worth more or less than their original investment. The investment strategy presented is not appropriate for every investor and individual clients should review with their financial advisors the terms and conditions and risk involved with specific products or services. Stadion's actively managed portfolios may underperform during bull markets.