2007 Charts of the Week
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- Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted November 2, 2007
- A country’s gross domestic product (GDP) measures the size of its economy. GDP is generally defined as the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time. Many economists follow movements in GDP growth rates to assess how quickly or slowly an economy is growing or contracting. GDP is measured with inflation (nominal) and without inflation (real).
- 20071026marketvolatility.html
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- Top Ten Countries in the MSCI EAFE Index
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted October 19, 2007
- The Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Europe, Australasia, and the Far East (EAFE) Index is a representative benchmark used to measure the performance of the international stock market as a whole, in U.S. dollar terms. The graph above shows the performance of the top 10 countries by weighting in the index as of September 30, 2007, with the United Kingdom having the highest weighting, Japan having the second highest, and so forth.
- S&P 500 Sector Performance (as of 9/30/07)
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted October 12, 2007
- As highlighted by the August 10th, 2007 Chart of the Week, individual sectors of the stock market can post good and bad years for investors. A sector can outperform over an extended period and then underperform in subsequent periods, trailing all other sectors. The graph above compares the performance of the S&P 500 Index to its ten underlying industry sectors.
- 3rd Quarter Market Review (as of 9/30/07)
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted October 5, 2007
- Capital markets earned postive returns for investors in the third quarter of 2007. Bonds, as measured by the Lehman Brothers Aggregate Bond Index, rose 2.84% for the quarter and 5.14% for the trailing 1-year period. U.S. equities, represented by the S&P 500 Index and the Russell 3000 Index, posted positive returns for both the third quarter and the 1-year period. International equity markets, which are often benchmarked relative to the MSCI EAFE Index, earned the largest returns for investors over the trailing 1-year period, returning 25.57%.
- Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted September 28, 2007
- A country’s gross domestic product (GDP) measures the size of its economy. GDP is generally defined as the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time.
- Federal Funds Target Rate
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted September 21, 2007
- Banks in the United States are legally obligated to keep a portion of deposits with the Federal Reserve or on hand in cash. This amount is held as the reserve amount and represents a percentage of total bank deposits. If banks fall below the reserve requirements they are required to borrow money from other banks, or the Federal Reserve in order to meet the minimum reserve value.
- An Increasing Dividend, but Lower Dividend Yield?
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted September 07, 2007
- A comparison of the annual cash dividend per share for all of the S&P 500 companies to their dividend yield since 1960 shows that while companies increased their cash dividends per share over time their dividend yield fell. The fall in the dividend yield could be due to rising stock prices or to companies retaining and reinvesting more of their profits and thereby reducing their dividend payouts.
- How Has The Dow Performed?
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted September 07, 2007
- The Wall Street Journal recently speculated that several conditions could send The Dow higher including, but not limited to Fed interest-rate cuts, tame inflation news, the settling of the bond markets and strong economic growth.
- Value Versus Growth
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted August 24, 2007
- It is often debated whether higher stock market returns can be achieved by investing in stocks labeled as “growth” or “value”. This weeks chart show the relative performance of value over growth. As of July 31, 2007, value stocks, as represented by the Russell 1000 Value Index, underperformed growth stocks, represented by the Russell 1000 Growth Index, for the year-to-date and trailing one-year time periods. the chart shows that these relative returns change over time and diversification is an important strategy in long term investing.
- Adding Liquidity to the Financial Markets
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted August 24, 2007
- Last Friday, the Federal Reserve Board (Fed) surprised most investors by lowering its target Discount Rate from 6.25% to 5.75% in an effort to calm higher than normal volatility in the financial markets.
- Market Volatility
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted August 17, 2007
- Volatility, as measured by the Chicago Board of Options Exchange VIX Index, increased significantly last week.
- S&P 500 Sector Performance
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted August 10, 2007
- This graph compares the performance of the S&P 500 Index to its ten underlying industry sectors.
- S&P 500 QUARTERLY OPERATING EARNINGS
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted August 3, 2007
- This chart illustrates the operating earnings of companies in the S&P 500 Index on a quarterly basis.
- Will Gas Prices Continue to Fall
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted July 27, 2007
- In the last six weeks, the national average price of gasoine fell 8%. This decline is possibly due to increasing domestic gasoline supplies, increased operating capacity for U.S. refiners and indications that OPEC may increase oil production.
- Consumer Price Index (CPI)
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted July 20, 2007
- As of June 30, the year-over-year Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.7%, the same as in May.
- Start Saving Early
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted July 13, 2007
- Contributing to your retirement account early can accelerate progress toward your retirement goals.
- 2nd Quarter Market Review (as of 6/30/07)
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted July 6, 2007
- Capital markets, with the exception of the bond market, earned postive returns for investors in the second quarter of 2007.
- U.S. Dollar Versus Euro and Yen
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted June 29, 2007
- As the USD Continues to depreciate relative to the Euro and appreciate relative to the Yen, Euro-based investments will be worth more in U.S. dollars while Yen-based investments will be worth less.
- 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted June 22, 2007
- Last week, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages as measured by Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey averaged 6.74%, up from 6.53% the prior week which was the highest the rates have been since July of last year.
- Home Sales
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted June 8, 2007
- New home sales experienced an unexpected jump of 16% in April. This followed a surprising jump in existing homes sales in February. However, the overall trend for home sales is down and analysts are continuing to monitor the housing market closely. The general consensus is that weakness in home sales will continue through the rest of the year as housing demand remains low.
- Global Interest Rates
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted June 8, 2007
- Recently, there has been a great deal of speculation in the news about whether or not the Federal Reserve will increase the Fed Funds Rate in 2007. The Fed Funds Rate is a key interest rate which the US Central Bank (the Federal Reserve) uses as a tool to help implement monetary policy in the US. If the Fed believes that the economy is growing too quickly they may implement a tightening policy by raising interest rates, which makes borrowing more expensive and hopefully slows the pace of economic growth.
- S&P 500 Record Close
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted June 1, 2007
- On Wednesday, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, a widely accepted measure of the domestic equity market, closed above its record high of 1527.5 set in March 2000. The previous record was set on March 24, 2000 just before the dotcom bubble burst. After the dotcom bubble burst the S&P 500 lost nearly half its value bottoming out at 776.8 on October 9, 2002. However, analysts are not anticipating a repeat performance as corporate earnings growth remains healthy and global demand for US products stays strong.
- Stable Value
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted May 24, 2007
- When investing in any asset class in the market, an investor assumes some level of risk.
- Risk and Reward
- MarketView Chart of the Week, posted May 18, 2007
- When investing in any asset class in the market, an investor assumes some level of risk.
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