The commodities bubble may have burst this month as traders decided to bail out of Silver which was down as much as 25% by mid May. This quasi precious metal ended the month with a collapse of 20%. Some recent financial data indicates that world economies are starting to show signs of an economic slowdown. This led to investor fears that slowing economies means that there will be less demand for industrial materials. The result was a difficult month for commodities, which overall fell by about 5% in May.

Stocks also took a hit in May as the fear of an economic slow down put a damper on earnings expectations and inflation fears. This led to a drop of almost 2% for both stocks, and inflation protected bonds (TIPS). On the other hand, this was good news for both Bonds which were up a little over 1%, and the Dollar which tacked on almost 2% during the month of May. The rising dollar increased the losses experienced by investors in international stocks as those securities fell almost 3%. Interestingly, Real Estate stocks had returns that were more in sync with bonds than stocks as they also gained a slightly more than 1%.

Continue reading the Insightful Investing Newsletter June 2011 …

April was a fairly quiet month as financial markets in Europe and Japan bounced back somewhat from a difficult first quarter of 2011. International Stocks led the way, picking up 6.0% this month, followed by Real Estate, which gained 5.9%.

Domestically, style played a bigger role in performance than market cap as growth stocks continue to lead the market higher. Small Cap Growth stocks topped the list with a gain of 4.1% while Large Cap stocks gained 3.0% this month. On the other hand, Small Cap Value stocks only earned a respectable 1.6% in April.

Commodity prices continued to push higher in April, a clear sign of increasing inflation that helped to push TIPS up around the world. TIPS earned 2.5% this month, making them the strongest performing domestic bond sector this month. Thanks to a falling dollar, though, international bonds performed even better for US investors.

Continue reading the Insightful Investing Newsletter May 2011 …

The geopolitical news was almost all negative in the first quarter of 2011, but that did not stop stocks from advancing. Take your pick, unrest in the Middle East, continuing sovereign debt issues in Europe, or the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, each had a negative impact on stocks during the first half of March. In spite of this, more signs of an economic recovery, including good earnings and a drop in the unemployment rate, helped stocks rebound in the second half of the month as the broad stock market gained 6.4% this quarter.

Continue reading the Insightful Investing Newsletter April 2011 …

February started out like it was going to be a better month than January until political unrest in the Middle East struck once again, this time in Libya. In a matter of 3 days, the price of oil went from $90 a barrel to over $100 a barrel. This disrupted the recent trends in the financial markets, with Stocks reversing a 6 month rise and Long Treasuries rebounding from a 6 month fall. That being said, it was still a good month for Equities as Small Cap Stocks gained 5.5%, Mid Cap Stocks picked up 4.6%, International Stocks added 3.7%, and Large Cap Stocks returned 3.4%. Money continued to flow out of Emerging Equities, which actually lost almost 1.0% in February.

Continue reading the Insightful Investing News March 2011 …

On paper it looked like the year started off with a relatively quiet month, but the political unrest in Egypt essentially cut equity returns for January in half. The leaders of the pack were Real Estate and Large Cap Value stocks, both turning in a gain of 3.2%. Most equity categories returned a little over 2% this month, although Small Cap Stocks essentially broke even, while Emerging Market Equities actually lost 2.7%.

Continue reading the Insightful Investing News February 2011 …

In the end, 2010 was a good year for investors, even though the roller coaster they call the global financial markets occasionally looked like it was going to fall off the tracks. While the European debt crisis led many investors to believe that world economies were setting up for the much feared double dip, governments around the world continued to take action to prevent that from happening. The result was a surge in commodities prices with gold surging to record highs and oil topping $90 a barrel for the first time in two years.

Continue reading the Insightful Investing Newsletter January 2011 …

Once again stocks started the month off strong, but that only lasted a week before more troubles in Europe took equities back down to where they started the month. While you had to look closely to find the gain for the S & P 500 this month, it did match the microscopic gain of T-Bills at 0.01%. That being said, there was actually considerable volatility in the financial markets, that resulted in considerable divergence of returns.

Continue reading the Insightful Investing News December 2010 …

Stocks started the month off with a bang and really never looked back as October, the month that most people think is the worst for investors, was almost as strong as September, the month that historically actually has been the worst month for investors. Microcap Growth stocks were the place to be as they gained a nice 6.7% this month, while Emerging Market Equities were actually the laggards since they only picked up 2.9%.

Continue reading the Insightful Investing News November 2010 …

Stocks had their best September in 70 years to more than make up for a dreadful August. The result was a very strong third quarter in 2010. The leader of the pack this quarter was Emerging Market Equities, which picked up a stellar 18.2%. In fact, with investor concerns about financial difficulties in Europe subsiding the dollar fell significantly. This helped International Stocks in general post a strong quarter, picking up 16.2%. In the US, Mid Cap Growth stocks topped the charts with a gain of 14.8%, while Small Cap Value trailed the field with a gain of only 9.2%. It has been a year since there was this significant of a differential between Growth Stocks, which added 13.0% for the quarter, and Value Stocks which picked up only 10.1%. In that case, Value stocks were the place to be. The last time Growth stock outperformed Value stocks by this much was during the dreadful first quarter of 2009, when Growth Stocks lost substantially less than Value Stocks.

Continue reading the Insightful Investing Newsletter October 2010 …

There was no follow through by the financial market from last month’s bounce as stocks made it three out of four on the downside. Small Cap Stocks took the biggest hit, falling -7.5% while the overall market dropped only about -4.5%. Last month’s leaders held up better than most with International Stocks down only -3.0% and REITs losing only 1.2%.

Most categories of bonds picked up between 1.0% and 3.0% in August, with the exception of Short Term Bonds and High Yield Bonds which finished just above break-even for the month.

Continue reading the Insightful Investing News September 2010 …