STOCK INDEX PERFORMANCE
Index Week YTD 12-mo. 2007 5-yr.
DOW JONES 30 (12216) -1.17% -7.36% 1.64% 8.88% 10.92%
S&P 500 (1315) -1.04% -9.96% -5.37% 5.49% 10.79%
NASDAQ 100 (1768) 0.90% -15.12% 0.33% 19.24% 11.46%
S&P 500/Citigroup Growth 0.10% -10.41% -1.91% 9.25% 8.36%
S&P 500/Citigroup Value -2.21% -9.48% -8.51% 2.03% 13.32%
S&P MidCap 400/Citigroup Growth 1.08% -9.77% -3.16% 13.55% 13.41%
S&P MidCap 400/Citigroup Value -0.28% -9.56% -11.93% 2.84% 15.85%
S&P SmallCap600/Citigroup Growth 1.01% -8.89% -7.52% 5.66% 14.81%
S&P SmallCap600/Citigroup Value -1.02% -7.30% -13.62% -5.19% 15.79%
MSCI EAFE 4.97% -8.45% -1.50% 11.76% 21.58%
MSCI World (ex US) 4.97% -8.28% -0.15% 13.04% 21.99%
MSCI World 2.16% -9.03% -2.50% 9.69% 16.10%
MSCI Emerging Markets 5.94% -10.34% 24.40% 39.23% 34.75%
Returns are total returns. The 5-yr. return is an average annual.
One-week,YTD, 12-mo. and 5-yr. performance returns calculated through 03/28/08.
S&P SECTOR PERFORMANCE
Index Week YTD 12-mo. 2007 5-yr.
Consumer Discretionary -2.96% -7.23% -18.61% -13.21% 6.74%
Consumer Staples 0.86% -2.40% 9.90% 14.36% 11.07%
Energy 2.85% -7.57% 21.22% 34.41% 26.64%
Financials -6.87% -14.69% -28.13% -18.52% 5.78%
Health Care -0.43% -11.04% -5.29% 7.32% 4.53%
Industrials 0.10% -4.66% 5.84% 12.04% 14.89%
Information Technology -1.08% -15.76% -1.19% 16.30% 9.56%
Materials 4.81% -2.99% 9.57% 22.53% 19.60%
Telecom Services 0.88% -15.20% -10.22% 11.88% 12.56%
Utilities -0.08% -10.82% -2.90% 19.38% 19.39%
Returns are total returns. The 5-yr. return is an average annual.
One-week,YTD, 12-mo. and 5-yr. performance returns calculated through 03/28/08.
BOND INDEX PERFORMANCE
Index Week YTD 12-mo. 2007 5-yr.
U.S. Treasury: Intermediate -0.56% 4.34% 11.71% 8.83% 4.34%
GNMA 30 Year -0.39% 2.39% 7.94% 6.97% 4.74%
U.S. Aggregate -0.42% 1.97% 7.36% 6.97% 4.61%
U.S. Corporate High Yield 1.26% -2.78% -3.46% 1.88% 8.87%
U.S. Corporate Investment Grade -0.63% -0.31% 2.58% 4.56% 4.33%
Municipal Bond: Long Bond (22+) -0.46% -4.58% -5.03% 0.46% 4.16%
Global Aggregate 0.33% 6.26% 14.35% 9.48% 7.47%
Returns include reinvested interest.The 5-yr.return is an average annual.
One-week,YTD, 12-mo. and 5-yr. performance returns calculated through 03/28/08.
KEY RATES
As of 03/28
Fed Funds 2.25% 5-YR CD 3.18%
LIBOR (1-month) 2.65% 2-YR Note 1.65%
CPI - Headline 4.00% 5-YR Note 2.51%
CPI - Core 2.30% 10-YR Note 3.44%
Money Market Accts. 2.40% 30-YR T-Bond 4.32%
Money Market Funds 2.59% 30-YR Mortgage 5.78%
6-mo. CD 2.72% Prime Rate 5.25%
1-YR CD 2.85% Bond Buyer 40 5.20%
WEEKLY FUND FLOWS
Week of 03/19 Previous
Equity Funds -$11.5 B $22.9 B
Including ETF activity, Domestic funds reporting net outflows of
-$10.880B and Non-domestic funds reporting net outflows of -$645M.
Bond Funds -$196 M -$429 M
Municipal Bond Funds $368 M $219 M
Money Markets $35.519 B $3.696 B
FACTOIDS FOR THE WEEK OF MARCH 24TH - MARCH 28TH
Monday, March 24, 2008 — Corporate Bonds
One of the areas of the market thumped by the credit crunch is high yield
corporate bonds. While these bonds are inherently more sensitive to economic
swings than investment-grade debt, the subprime-induced sell-off over the past
few months has driven prices lower than a major economic downturn likely
would have, particularly in the closed-end market, according to BusinessWeek.
Current yields imply that 50% of all issuers will default at some point over the
next five years, which is not likely, according to James Swanson, chief
investment strategist at MFS Investment Management. For the 12-month
period ended March 20, 2008, the average high yield closed-end fund
(leveraged) was down 18.85%, according to the Closed-End Fund Association.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 — High Yield Corporate Debt
Eleven companies have issued $9 billion worth of high yield corporate debt so
far in 2008, well below the $39.5 billion raised by 83 issuers over the same
period a year ago, according to Bloomberg. Volume is down in part because
investors are demanding an 8 percentage point spread over Treasuries, up a
little more than 2 percentage points since the close of 2007, according to data
from Merrill Lynch. The all-time low for this spread was 2.41 percentage points
set in June 2007. Merrill puts the all-time high at 11.2 percentage points in
October 2002 (bottom of last bear market in stocks). There is around $1 trillion
of this debt outstanding.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008 — Gold
The price of gold bullion closed yesterday’s trading session at $935.00 per
ounce, down from the all-time closing high of $1,004.30 set on March 18,
2008. If an investor had bought $10,000 worth of gold bullion the last time
prices were at record levels (January 1980) and held it their investment would
be worth close to $10,600 today, according to Money and the World Gold
Council. Had that same investor bought a portfolio of stocks that replicated the
S&P 500 instead of buying gold their $10,000 investment would have grown to
approximately $279,000, according to Morningstar.
Thursday, March 27, 2008 — Large-Cap Growth Stocks
The Q1'08 edition of the Investment Manager Outlook, a survey of investment
managers conducted by Russell Investment Group, says that money
managers continue to be most bullish on large-cap growth stocks over all other
asset classes. Sixty-four percent of those managers polled are bullish, down
from 75% in Q4'07. Non-U.S. developed markets came in second at 54%
(61% in Q4) followed by mid-cap growth stocks at 49% (60% in Q4). The
sectors that managers are most bullish on are health care at 71% (73% in Q4)
and technology at 63% (78% in Q4). Bullishness was down from last quarter
due to the ongoing fallout from the subprime mortgage market and higher
energy prices, but managers are expecting the market to improve once the
monetary and fiscal stimulus kicks in.
Friday, March 28, 2008 — Technology
Technology is the driving force behind a historic transformation of the world’s
population, particularly in developing countries, according to David Kirkpatrick,
senior editor at Fortune. He believes tech companies are facing a bright future.
While cellular penetration has exceeded that of PCs and Internet usage to
date, there remains plenty of upside for all three. There are presently 2.75
billion mobile phone subscribers worldwide, or roughly 41.6 subscribers per
100 people, according to data from Imran Khan, senior analyst for Internet,
media and entertainment at JP Morgan. Global PC penetration is only 12.9 per
100 people. Khan’s data indicates that 1.3 billion people are connected to the
Internet. The global population as of today is estimated to be 6.657 billion.
The above was gathered by and posted from
FIRST TRUST ADVISORS L.P. • APPROVED FOR PUBLIC USE • 03/31/08*
Web link to this and all previous weekly information is
here*
In previous posts I had indicated this information was "posted from a subscription service". While it is true I receive this in .pdf form in my email and that email is received by me subsequent to a request for same, it is freely available to the general public without subscription or password via the link above.
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