Investors returned quietly to Wall Street after the long holiday weekend as equity markets oscillated between small gains and losses for most of trading on Tuesday. Moody’s downgraded Portugal’s sovereign debt to junk-status, sending the euro lower in the currency markets and gold even higher. The hot yellow metal lead the way up and jumped more than $30 at the start of trading, and was able to climb back above the psychologically significant $1,500 level. Oil went along for the ride as well, gaining upwards of 2% for the day, as crude futures marched past $97 a barrel.
On Wednesday domestic equity indexes were able to edge higher as investors bought in on the dip. However, light trading volumes are always a risky environment to participate in, simply because volatility can strike even quicker. Investors are waiting to hear from the ECB on Thursday regarding its interest rate decision, while on the home front the employment report due out on Friday will be the main event. Gold continued its advance and closed just under $1,530 an ounce on Wednesday, while oil also crept higher above $97 a barrel, despite tightening from China.
[click to continue…]
Last week saw markets perform very well to close out the quarter as the Dow gained more than 600 points in five days. This robust gain came thanks to declining fears over a Greek default and solid manufacturing data in the U.S. This led many to buy equities on the dip, resulting in solid gains for all [...]
Historically, no portfolio was complete without a material allocation to real estate. Consistently high real returns and low correlations to stocks and bonds made it easy to overlook the out-of-whack fundamentals that ultimately led to an unprecedented collapse. But when real estate markets got a reality check in late 2008, many investors swore off the [...]
Following a year that saw some of the worst performances in recent memory, many asset classes have bounced back in 2009. But some have performed better than others, and as the year draws to a close we take a look at some of the best-performing ETFs. The year’s top gainers include a few of the [...]
With a roller coaster six months behind us that saw no shortage of interesting twists and turns and unsuspected headlines, we’ve finally reached the midway point of 2009. Ahead of us is the highly anticipated “second half of 2009,” which for months we’ve heard will hold returns to growth, a recovering economy, and enough green [...]
As the first half of 2009 draws to a close, it seems that we’re finally starting to see things return to some semblance of normality. Equity markets have rallied sharply since bottoming out in March. Volatility is back within its historical range after hitting record highs over the past year. And politicians in Washington have [...]
