January 20112 - FOURTH QUARTER 2011

Market Commentary - Signs of Strength in the US

Another year has come and gone. If you just looked at the numbers you would think that nothing much had happened ~ and you would be wrong. While the S&P 500 finished the year virtually unchanged (dividends brought the total return to 2.12%) there was a lot of to and fro over the 12 months. The S&P bounced between 1250 and 1350 for much of the year through July. Then the market declined in "waterfall fashion", entering August with a move straight down to 1150, finally working its way down to 1075 in early October, a decline of about 20%.

In August the averages turned schizophrenic, with the Dow Jones Industrials ricocheting up and down over 400 points a day for four days running. After the market bottomed in October, it rallied smartly all the way back to the 1260 area. Volatility was rampant as measured by "all or nothing days." An all or nothing day is a day in which the spread between the advancing and declining S&P 500 stocks is greater than 400, either positive or negative.

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Market Commentary - 2011
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Market Commentary - 2010
	Q4 2010 - Market Commentary
	Q3 2010 - Market Commentary
	Q2 2010 - Market Commentary
	Q1 2010 - Market Commentary
Market Commentary - 2009
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	Q2 2009 Market Commentary
	Q1 2009 Market Commentary