April’s upward move in stocks fizzled in May with a 1.15% drop in US stocks. Foreign stocks slipped 2.83% after rising sharply in April. In recent days the market took another dive with a sharp pullback on June 1st. The main fear seems to be a newly slowing economy, but we’re sticking to our take that newly sliding home prices are the real trouble spot. Stocks can’t go in a different direction from home prices forever. ...read the rest of this article»

The market shook off the troubles of March and headed to higher ground, up just shy of 3% in April. Considering the economy is showing some signs of running out of gas (perhaps because gas prices keep going up) and home prices are heading back down, investor optimism is surprisingly high. Too bad. Investors tend to do better long run getting in during periods of pessimism. Bonds were good after a period of rising interest rates early this year that was pushing mortgages into dangerous territory given the continued weakness in housing.  ...read the rest of this article»

With an almost perfectly flat S&P 500 in March, you’d almost think the month was a dull one on Wall Street. Hardly. By the middle of the month the S&P 500 was down about 8% from the close in February, largely due to a massive natural and manmade disaster in Japan (a market that itself was down almost 20% from the levels in February). Though Japan only partially rebounded, the S&P 500 ended the month back where it started. ...read the rest of this article»

Stocks continued to outshine bonds in February as inflation fears, state budget default hysteria, rising commodities, and growing inflation and turmoil in some emerging markets failed to spook investors (though in recent days things have become a little dodgy as oil prices hovered around $100). ...read the rest of this article»

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. ...read the rest of this article»

The market ended 2010 on a strong note, with our benchmark Vanguard 500 (VFINX) fund jumping 6.67% - good to deliver a 14.91% return for 2010. Foreign stocks, as measured by the iShares MSCI EAFE Index ETF (EFA), were up 8.3%, but underperformed the US market with a 8.25% return for 2010 – December saved international stocks from a negative year. Our Conservative portfolio was up 1.37% while our Aggressive portfolio was up 2.58% in December. For the year, Conservative was up 7.58% while Aggressive gained 9.84% - a solid return considering our significant bond allocations.  ...read the rest of this article»

As longer term followers of our portfolios know, we review the year-end tax distribution estimates for our funds around this time to aid in any year-end tax planning. In the case of large year-end distribution, it can make sense to hold off buying a fund until the distribution is paid, particularly with high tax rate short term capital gains. Sometimes it can make sense to sell before the distribution and buy a different fund. ...read the rest of this article»

The current rise in riskier assets may be caused by professional investors trying to get ahead of the next asset bubble. While investors with their own money are avoiding stock funds after a decade-plus of go-nowhere performance, minimal dividends, and major dips, pros who have the luxury of investing other people’s money are starting to focus on the asset bubbles created over the last 15 or so years, in part by Federal Reserve policies.  ...read the rest of this article»

The strongest stock categories in September where technology funds, which gained 13%, and small cap growth, up 12.8%. Japan, utilities, and real estate posted more modest gains, up 7%, 4.7%, and 4.4% respectively. Strong bond areas included emerging market bond funds, up 3.2% and high yield (junk) bonds, up 2.9%. ...read the rest of this article»

In August our Conservative portfolio was down -0.8% while our Aggressive portfolio was down 1.8%. Stocks sank last month and bonds were strong once again.  The S&P 500 index fund was down 4.53% while the total bond market index fund was up 1.61%. Smaller cap stocks were hit hard, down 7.4%. The Nasdaq was in equally hot water, off about 6.2%. This took most stock mutual funds down more than the S&P 500 as the S&P 500 tends to be larger cap oriented than most funds.  ...read the rest of this article»