Newsletter Q2 2015

This past quarter would appear to have been a bit of a yawner if judged solely on price change in the equity markets. While bonds experienced an uptick in yields, the results were negative total returns across the different bond sectors with long dated bonds down -7.6%. Other areas hit hard by higher rates were: REITs (-9.1%) and utility stocks (-10.7%). Strangely enough major domestic large cap, mid cap and small cap indices as well as international developed and emerging market indices all ended within a fairly tight range, with the best performance coming from the growth stock laden NASDAQ Composite +1.75%. The S&P 400 Index (mid-cap stocks) was the weakest, losing -1.06% in the period. Given the cacophony of handwringing and noise, an alien looking down on Earthlings from 265,000 feet would be justified in saying, “These humans need to relax!”