For those of you who didn’t catch our last e-mail, or the regular mailer we sent out, we are happy to say that after 11 years at our Clinton Township location, we have decided to move our office. Our main phone number and fax number will stay the same, but our new address is:
43409 Schoenherr Road
Sterling Heights, MI 48313
It’s located just north of 19 mile on Schoenherr, only a few miles from our previous Clinton Township office.
Please feel free to stop by for a tour, or schedule a formal review meeting to discuss our big moves earlier this year with TD Ameritrade and Gradient Securities/RBC.
Now, here is our market commentary:
The last month has been a very difficult one for both stocks and bonds. The Russell 2000, which is what we consider to be the 2,000 top stocks in the United States, is now negative for the year, again. It rose to a profit in August but is now down over 7% year-to-date (Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=%5ERUT+Interactive#symbol=%5ERUT;range=6m).
It has also been a bad month for the NASDAQ and S&P 500.
Some of the research that we review says that Technology stocks are in a bubble. This is a cause for concern, especially for the investors who remember how painful it can be when a so called stock bubble bursts. When you take a step back from the market and take into consideration that the S&P 500 has been up in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 (so far) it begs the question: How many years in a row will be up?
Of course we don’t have that answer, but it does make us a little skeptical, and somewhat risk averse. Alternatively, the 4th Quarter is typically a good quarter each year for stocks. 2008 was certainly a notable exception though.
The Chief Investment Officer of PIMCO, Bill Gross, left the firm on September 26th, and that has sent a ripple through the bond markets. Known as the “Bond King”, it seems his departure rattled the entire bond market. How this will affect Pimco’s mutual funds remains to be seen. At this time we have not removed money from PIMCO, but that decision may come soon. We will keep you posted on our due diligence.
The challenge is to find investments that have the potential to profit in an environment like this. Bonds were certainly not an all-star last year, but this year most bonds have held their own, although they have struggled the past week because of the Bill Gross departure. Typically in a slow growth environment defensive equities tend to become more attractive. In many of our portfolios we have added Gold, dividend paying stocks, interest paying bonds, and Indian equities to help diversify the portfolio.
Instead of calling us bearish or bullish, we say you can call us flexible. This is the position our process and strategy has suggested. That being said, some portfolios are more flexible and nimble than others, so if you would like to discuss your portfolio with us, we would be happy to help, just give us a call.
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INTERESTING NOTES
Football – The NFL’s 32 franchises are collectively worth $45 billion, up from $6.5 billion in 1991. – Forbes’ Annual “Business of Football”
Largest Employer – The largest employer in the world is the United States Department of Defense, with a little over 3.2 million employees. Next up is the Chinese army, formally known as the People’s Liberation Army, with 2.3 million employees, and third is Walmart, with 2.1 million. – BBC News, March 19, 2012
Deadly Events – The three deadliest events in human history were all infectious diseases – the Spanish flu, the Black Death (the bubonic plague), and HIV. – David Morens, medical Historian
Teen Pregnancy – From 2007 to 2013, teen pregnancy in America fell 35.9%. – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2014
Baseball Games – Since the mid-19th century, about 120 spectators at baseball games have been killed by foul balls, making baseball the most dangerous spectator sport in America to watch. – Atlanta Magazine, July 14, 2014
Bridge Collapse? – There are 607,380 bridges in America that are, on average, 42 years old, and one in nine is rated structurally deficient. – American Society of Civil Engineers, 2013
California Water Shortages – California now grows 80% of the world’s almonds, a crop that uses enough water to supply 75% of the drought-parched state’s population. – Bloomberg, August 11, 2014
Market Performance
| Name | Type | As of Date | 1-Week | YTD | 4-Week | 13-Week | 1-Year | 3-Year | 5-Year |
| DJ Industrial Average TR | TR | 10-09-14 | -0.81 | 2.31 | -1.97 | -1.36 | 15.16 | 17.43 | 13.97 |
| NASDAQ Composite PR | PR | 10-09-14 | -1.17 | 4.83 | -3.82 | -0.92 | 19.05 | 20.87 | 15.40 |
| NYSE Composite PR | — | 10-09-14 | -1.39 | 0.09 | -4.90 | -5.42 | 9.61 | 14.55 | 8.21 |
| Russell 2000 TR | TR | 10-09-14 | -2.58 | -7.31 | -7.67 | -8.72 | 3.69 | 19.27 | 13.18 |
| S&P 500 TR | TR | 10-09-14 | -0.88 | 5.99 | -2.87 | -1.77 | 18.82 | 21.21 | 14.86 |
| S&P MidCap 400 | TR | 10-09-14 | -2.03 | -0.03 | -6.88 | -6.37 | 10.14 | 20.21 | 15.25 |