As of November 6, 2009
 
n As expected, the FOMC announced that it will keep its policy stance largely unchanged. While acknowledging some further improvement in economic conditions, it still anticipates weak economic growth and low inflation. We continue to expect the Fed funds target will be raised in second quarter 2010, though increases should be gradual for the bulk of the year.
 
n Meanwhile, the Bank of England added another GBP 25 billion to its government bond-buying program, but kept its key interest rate at 0.5%. The European Central Bank kept its benchmark rate at a record-low 1%, as widely anticipated.
 
n Gold surged to record highs during the week, breaking $1,095 /oz. before pulling back slightly. A large purchase of gold by India’s central bank raised expectations that other overseas central banks would follow suit. Oil, which began the week at $76.50 per barrel, finished slightly higher at about $77.65.
 
n The U.S. Department of Labor reported on Friday that unemployment had risen in October to 10.2%, a 26-year high. Still, after a brief, early sell-off stocks reversed and traded in a narrow range for the rest of the day. Investors shifted from financial firms and bought shares of industrial companies. The S&P 500, the Dow and the NASDAQ indices were higher for the week. Bond prices rose and yields fell modestly, perhaps in reaction to the unemployment report and worries over the future profitability of Wall Street firms.
 
n Overseas markets closed mostly up for the week. Gainers included the Nikkei average in Japan, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong, the Shanghai index in China, the DAX index in Germany, the CAC 40 in France and the FTSE 100 in Britain.
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 
Source: FactSet, Bloomberg
 
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Index Definitions
 
Barclays Capital Global Aggregate Bond Index measures a wide range of global government, government-related, corporate and securitized fixed-income investments, all with maturities greater than one year.
 
Barclays Capital High-Yield Bond Index tracks the performance of below investment grade U.S. dollar-denominated corporate bonds publicly issued in the U.S. domestic market.
 
Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Index is a bond market index composed of US securities in Treasury, Government-Related, Corporate, and Securitized sectors that are of investment-grade quality or better, have at least one year to maturity, and have an outstanding par value of at least $250 million.
 
Dow Jones Industrial Average is a price-weighted average computed from the stock prices of 30 of the largest and most widely held public companies in the United States, adjusted to reflect stock splits and stock dividends.
 
FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Global Real Estate Index represents general performance trends of the equity securities of real estate companies involved in the ownership, disposition and development of income-producing properties worldwide.
 
JPMorgan Emerging Markets Bond Index Plus (EMBI+) tracks total returns for traded foreign currency denominated debt instruments in the emerging markets which meet minimum criteria for face value outstanding and market trading liquidity.
 
MSCI EAFE Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization weighted index designed to measure developed markets’ equity performance, excluding the US & Canada, for 21 countries.
 
MSCI Europe ex-U.K. Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization weighted index designed to measure equity performance of the 15 developed European markets except the United Kingdom.
 
MSCI U.K. Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization weighted index designed to measure equity performance of listed common stocks in the United Kingdom.
 
MSCI Asia ex-Japan Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization weighted index designed to measure equity performance of the 15 developed Asian markets except Japan.
 
MSCI Japan Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization weighted index designed to measure equity performance of listed common stocks in Japan.
 
MSCI Emerging Markets Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index that measures emerging market equity performance of 22 countries.
 
Municipal Bond Index is a bond index that includes investment-grade, tax-exempt fixed-rate bonds with long-term maturities (greater than two years) selected from issues larger than $50 million.
 
NASDAQ Composite Index is a market capitalization weighted index of the performance of domestic and international common stocks listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market including over 2,800 securities.
 
Russell 1000 Growth Index measures the large-cap growth segment of the U.S. equity market including Russell 1000 companies with higher price-to-book ratios and forecasted growth.
 
Russell 1000 Value Index measures the large-cap value segment of the U.S. equity market including Russell 1000 companies with lower price-to-book ratios and lower expected growth.
 
Russell Midcap Growth Index measures the performance of the mid-cap growth segment of the U.S. equity market including Russell Midcap Index companies with higher price-to-book ratios and forecasted growth.
 
Russell Midcap Value Index measures the performance of the mid-cap growth segment of the U.S. equity market including Russell Midcap Index companies with lower price-to-book ratios and forecasted growth.
 
Russell 2000 Growth Index measures the performance of small-cap growth stocks in the U.S. equity market including Russell 2000 companies with higher price-to-value ratios and forecasted growth.
 
Russell 2000 Value Index measures the performance of small-cap growth stocks in the U.S. equity market including Russell 2000 companies with lower price-to-value ratios and forecasted growth.
 
S&P 500 Index is a widely regarded as the best single gauge of the U.S. equities market, including 500 leading companies in major industries of the U.S. economy.
 
S&P 500 Sectors are defined as the GICS (Global Industry Classification Standard) sectors which provide standardized industry definitions consisting of 10 sectors, 24 industry groups, and 68 industries.
 
 
 
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