Major Asset Trends: Municipal and Other Bonds Recover Some, Commodities Strong
12/20/2010 0 comments
Major asset trends are critical to tactical asset allocation strategies such as our Tactical Asset Allocation. We track the trends weekly.
Last week, municipal bonds (MUB) had the strongest recovery. Credit bonds (investment grade bonds, CFT, CIU, LQD) also recovered some. With Bill Gross at PIMCO putting his own money to beaten down closed end bond funds (see here), investors were encouraged and flocked back to bonds.
The most noticeable trend shuffling is that commodities were strong and inched up to the top five spots. Among other risk assets, U.S. stocks continued to be strong while investors should pay attention to emerging market stocks' performance: they were lackluster in the past several weeks due to inflation concerns in China and India as well as the Korean peninsula tension.
| Assets Class | Symbols | 12/17 Trend Score | 12/10 Trend Score | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frontier Market Stks | (FRN) | 12.32% | 13.93% | v |
| International REITs | (RWX) | 9.7% | 10.35% | v |
| US Stocks | (VTI) | 9.41% | 10.21% | v |
| Commodities | (GSG) | 9.08% | 8.74% | ^ |
| Emerging Market Stks | (VWO) | 8.86% | 9.64% | v |
| Gold | (GLD) | 8.16% | 9.46% | v |
| US Equity REITs | (VNQ) | 6.24% | 7.67% | v |
| International Developed Stks | (EFA) | 5.32% | 6.51% | v |
| US High Yield Bonds | (JNK) | 3.86% | 4.33% | v |
| US Credit Bonds | (CFT) | 1.1% | 0.72% | ^ |
| Emerging Mkt Bonds | (PCY) | 1.04% | 2.82% | v |
| International Treasury Bonds | (BWX) | 0.77% | 0.54% | ^ |
| Intermediate Treasuries | (IEF) | 0.09% | -0.73% | ^ |
| Total US Bonds | (BND) | 0.06% | -0.19% | ^ |
| Treasury Bills | (SHV) | 0.02% | 0.03% | v |
| Mortgage Back Bonds | (MBB) | -1.96% | -1.71% | v |
| Municipal Bonds | (MUB) | -2.01% | -3.5% | ^ |
click to enlarge
labels:investment,
Symbols:AGG,BND,BWX,CFT,DBA,DBC,EEM,EFA,EMB,FRN,GLD,GSG,HYG,ICF,IEF,IWM,IYR,JNK,MBB,MUB,PCY,PHB,RWX,SHV,SPY,TLT,VEU,VNQ,VTI,VWO,
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