The market started the month of October by continuing the comeback from the August lows, but by the second week the strength had begun to fizzle. The real trouble (call it mortgage woes v2) didn’t strike until November 1st so for the month of October the Dow eked out a modest 0.38% return. The S&P 500 fared a little better with a 1.58% return, beaten by a big move – which is looking a lot like a last gasp – by small caps stocks, moving up 4.5% for the month. But all indexes pale in comparison to the Nasdaq as investors continue to rediscover the magic of tech and growth stocks – or at least want to get as far away from bank stocks as they possibly can. The Nasdaq 100 index rocketed by just over 7% for the month, while the Nasdaq as a whole gained 5.84%. ...read the rest of this article»

The Dow climbed 4.16%, and the S&P 500 was up 3.72% in September. Both indexes beat smaller caps, which rose a relatively paltry 2.91% (Russell 2000) in comparison. Tech stocks were particularly strong, with the Nasdaq jumping 4.14%. Larger cap tech represented the best of both worlds, as the Nasdaq 100 index climbed 5.14% for the month. ...read the rest of this article»

August came in like a lion and went out like a lamb. Miraculously the stock market recovered early losses – not all the losses from July, but the losses from early August. At the end, the S&P 500 was up 1.5% for the month, just outpacing the Dow’s 1.4% return. The real action was in tech stocks, with the NASDAQ up 3%. Even small cap stocks came back (though are still underperforming over the last year) with a 2.52% gain in the Russell 2000 small cap index. ...read the rest of this article»

So far, August is among the strangest month for fund investors since before we started MAXfunds.com in 1999. In fact, it’s in one of the strangest months since we first got into the mutual fund business over 15 years ago…certainly up there with the Asian contagion, the Russian bond default, the dot com crash, and the junk bond crash. ...read the rest of this article»

Stocks took a bit of a breather in June. The S&P 500 slipped 1.66%, and the Dow dropped 1.49%. Considering the strength of stocks earlier in the year, this is not much of a pullback. Small cap stocks, which have been underperforming slightly in recent months, were down just 0.57% in June. Surprisingly, tech stocks bucked the trend (the typical tech sector fund was up about 1%) and were, for the most part, up slightly in June, despite the fact that the NASDAQ as a whole fell 0.05%. ...read the rest of this article»

April was almost shockingly strong for stocks. The S&P 500 jumped 4.42%, the Nasdaq 4.27%, and the Dow a whopping 5.87%. International stocks climbed just shy of 4%. Yet, the strength was mostly in larger cap stocks. The Russell 2000 small cap index was up just 1.8% in April, and has scored only a 7.83% gain over the last 12 months—a time period during which the S&P 500 climbed more than 15% and the Dow 17.6%. ...read the rest of this article»

The Conservative Portfolio climbed 0.46% in March.The market has shrugged off February's sharp drop as though it were just a moment of baseless anxiety. We’re not in the camp that thinks that all systems are go and the real estate slowdown is only going to have minimal repercussions on the economy. We’d be more enthusiastic if stocks were lower – or if fund investors were less optimistic. ...read the rest of this article»

Gulp. In our portfolio commentary from just four weeks ago, we said that "the market continues its heady ascent," and "if this keeps up unabated, it probably won’t end well.” A few days later, the Dow plummeted more than 500 points in just a few hours before partially recovering later in the day. After climbing back, it took another 250 point drop this past week. Nevertheless, due to big gains earlier in the year, the Dow is only down about 2%. The S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Russell 2000 (small cap index) are also all down for the year. ...read the rest of this article»

In January the S&P 500 gained a healthy 1.5%. Over the last twelve months this most-tracked index was up 14.5% - more than the NASDAS’s 6.84% rise, and more than the Russell 2000 small cap indexes 10.43% return. The real story is the 30 Dow stocks, up nearly 1.6% in January and almost 19% over the last twelve months. Mega cap U.S. stocks have been leading, and will likely continue to lead.  ...read the rest of this article»

In December, the S&P500 climbed 1.40% and the Dow 2.11%, while the NASDAQ slipped 0.68%. Small cap stocks rose, but only 0.34% (as measured by the Russell 2000 index), and bonds were weak as interest rates inched back up. The Lehman Brothers Long Term Treasury Index was down 2.14%, while the Vanguard Total Bond Index, which is less sensitive to interest rate shocks, fell by just 0.48%. ...read the rest of this article»