The good times for stocks came to an end in October, though not too abruptly. The S&P 500 was down 1.86% for the month, but is still up an impressive 14.16% for the year. The recent storm hitting the financial epicenter of America and the world had no negative impact on stocks other than a historic closing of the exchange. Surprisingly, foreign stocks did well while emerging market stocks declined. Bonds were essentially flat for the month, as were both Powerfund Portfolios. 

2012 is turning out to be a good year for stocks and bonds. With September’s 2.58% increase in the S&P 500 equities are up just over 16% since Jan 1. The YTD total bond market fund is up 4% through the end of September. This in the face of on-again-off-again Euro death spiral news and a domestic economy that, while not stalling, is sputtering or at least misfiring outside of technology. 

In the absence of scary economic news, stocks drift higher – like the roughly 2.25% gain in August. We would expect this to continue if we avoid a deep recession and any debt market shocks that drive rates higher. 

The rebound in stocks at the end of June carried through to July, though with some slides along the way. It’s a market scared of another collapse, yet it keeps finding support from (probably) not much else than the trillions of dollars globally that needs to be invested and the fact that cash and bonds should be very low return assets for the next few years.