“Our clients come to us for advice on how to protect their future. We take that level of trust very seriously.”
- Dan Junkin

By The Numbers - Second Quarter, 2008

Karen Foust

The fears of inflation, recession, oil, the dollar, etc. continue to take a toll on returns. However, while many are still down, the S&P returned -2.73% for the 2nd quarter, which was an improvement over the first quarter.

Large and small caps both had increasing returns following last quarter. Small caps out-performed large caps this quarter at 0.58% compared with large caps -1.89%.

Large cap value made a short comeback last quarter only to resume its position behind growth this period. Growth returned 1.25% while value lagged at -5.31%.

Fixed income remains in the lead this quarter. Looking at the comparison of domestic stocks, fixed income and international stocks for the period, fixed income returned -1.02%, domestic stocks (as measured by the Wilshire 5000)followed closely behind at -1.49%, and international at -1.93%.

Consumer sentiment continues to decline as reported by the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index. After a low of 64.5 last quarter, sentiment sank to 56.4 this quarter. And, while recent stimulus checks are being credited for some increased consumer spending, it is not enough of a boost to offset the decline that is attributed to the market instability, feared recession and expected inflation.

Newsletter Archives