The year started strong for stocks while bonds were stuck in the mud, the mud being rising long term rates and fears of future municipal bond defaults. The more stocks go up and bonds go down the better deal bonds become compared to stocks.
Strong areas in January included energy funds, up around 5%, followed by technology funds which gained 3.3%. Real estate rebounded, and larger cap international markets in Europe beat the U.S. Emerging markets were weak, with the typical fund in this area down about 3.25%. Latin America-focused funds slid 5.3% - an outlier in a month where other foreign stocks were strong.
Our best showing relative to the index again was from our mortgage bond fund Doubleline Total Return Bond (DLTNX) which climbed 2.30% in January, ahead of our bond market index fund benchmark by 2.2%
Vanguard Short-Term Bond ETF (BSV) rose 0.92% for the month, better than the bond market index fund benchmark by 0.8%, while investment grade bond fund Metropolitan West Total Return (MWTRX)< increased 0.74% last month. Junk bonds did well and this fund has some higher risk corporate debt.
Unfortunatly we also had some funds underperform the market in January. Our Vanguard Telecom Services ETF (VOX) fell -1.63% in January, 4% worse than our S&P 500 index fund benchmark.
PowerShares DB US Dollar Index (UUP) fell -1.54% in January.
Satuit Capital Micro Cap (SATMX) increased 0.34% in January, worse than the an S&P 500 index fund by -2.0% while Sector: Healthcare fund Health Care Select SPDR (XLV) increased just 0.57% in January.
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The year started strong for stocks while bonds were stuck in the mud, the mud being rising long term rates and fears of future municipal bond defaults. The more stocks go up and bonds go down the better deal bonds become compared to stocks.
Benchmark Vanguard 500 (VFINX) fund rose 2.36% in January while foreign stocks as measured by the iShares MSCI EAFE Index ETF (EFA) were up 2.09%. Our Conservative portfolio was up 0.91% and our Aggressive portfolio gained 1.36%.
Strong areas in January included energy funds, up around 5%, followed by technology funds which gained 3.3%. Real estate rebounded, and larger cap international markets in Europe beat the U.S. Emerging markets were weak, with the typical fund in this area down about 3.25%. Latin America-focused funds slid 5.3% - an outlier in a month where other foreign stocks were strong.