Quarterly Market Review: Q1 – 2012

As the U.S. economy continued its slow march toward recovery and Europe managed to fight off the threat of a Greek default on key bond payments, even higher gas prices couldn’t stop equities from powering upward. The S&P 500 registered its best first-quarter performance since 1998, the Nasdaq managed to surpass its October 2007 high, and the Russell 2000 was only 15 points from accomplishing the same thing. Even the Global Dow managed to beat the Dow industrials, despite the Dow’s gaining more in a single quarter than it did in all of 2011.

As investors grew increasingly comfortable with equities again, reduced demand for bonds sent yields back above 2%. Tensions with Iran pushed oil prices as high as $108 per barrel, pushing both gas prices and inflation higher despite concerns about slowing economies abroad. Gold regained some of the ground lost last year but then gave back almost half of those gains to end at roughly $1,670 an ounce. And after a strong move during 2011’s final quarter, the dollar stabilized a bit.