Monday, June 30, 2014

Halftime

Today makes the end of the first half of 2014, and it's been a pretty good year for the stock markets, if not quite as roaring as 2013 was. As of Friday, the S&P 500 had gained 6.1 percent on the year, after seeing an increase of around 30 percent last year. The Dow Jones industrial average is up 1.7 percent, and the Nasdaq up 5.3 percent.

The strongest sectors in the S&P were utilities, up 15.5 percent, and energy, up 11.6 percent. Among the index's ten sectors, only one suffered a loss, and that was the narrowest possible one: Consumer discretionary stocks were down 0.1 percent.

One of the biggest surprises of the first half was that the yield on the ten-year Treasury bond fell, after looking like it was rebounding for good in 2013. The yield opened the year at 3.03 percent but has since slid all the way down to 2.53 percent. Since bond prices move in the opposite direction of yields, that is a sign of strength in the bond market.

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