Market Recap – July 2013

Reassuring words from the Federal Reserve helped alleviate the anxiety seen in June about the imminent demise of easy money (at least for the moment). Coupled with benign economic data, that seemed to give investors the confidence to return to equities worldwide. The S&P 500, Dow, and Russell 2000 all saw new record closes during the month, and despite some tech earnings disappointments, the Nasdaq had the second-best performance for both the month and the year. The small caps of the Russell 2000 continued to have the best year-to-date track record and have now more than tripled since the index’s March 2009 low, while the S&P is up almost 1.5 times over the same period.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield edged up as prices fell, though at a much more moderate pace than was seen in June. Gold managed to retrieve half of its June losses to close at roughly $1,310 an ounce, but it has lost more than 20% since the beginning of the year. Oil prices rose approximately 7% to end July at $105 a barrel. And after a brief rally at the beginning of the month, the dollar finished down almost 2% against a basket of six foreign currencies.

Equities data reflect price changes, not total return.