Fabulous February
So after what was beginning to look like a challenge to the market with a material sell off in January, the winds reversed in February returning all of what had been lost. When finished, the returns in February wound up being the best since July of last year. Even more surprising was that the bounce back in the market was not just limited to stocks but also bond and commodity markets. For the month it’s worth noting that the S&P 500 was up 4.3% and the small company NASDAQ rallied 4.9%. The stocks of foreign developed countries had positive returns as measured by the MSCI EAFE which was up 5.3% for the month. Even the beleaguered Emerging Markets managed a positive return of 3.2%. But other markets surprised investors with gold rising 6.6% (maybe all that bling in Sochi inspired investors) and even staples like sugar and coffee went up in value as lack of rain in Brazil caused traders to buy the two staples needed by Starbucks. Perhaps this helps explain why the Seattle based coffee vendor’s stock was down 0.2 % for the month.