Weekly Update

The Markets                            Economic news was mostly positive for the week and that helped spur the equity markets to another strong week. Domestic markets are now close to break-even on the year after falling more than 5% from peaks around January 19th. The Fed also raised the discount rate charged to banks for emergency loans suggesting it sees an improving landscape as well. Consumer confidence was higher in the latest survey, industrial production stayed strong, new construction rose and inflation remained contained. All in all, a better week for news and market performance than we’ve seen recently.   Market/Index 2009 Close Prior Week As of 02/19/10 Week Change YTD Change DJIA 10428.05 10099.14 10402.35 3.00% (0.25)% S&P 500 1115.10 1075.51 1109.17 3.13% (0.53)% MSCI World 1168.47 1107.42 1134.45 2.45% (2.91)% Russell 2000 625.39 610.72 631.62 3.42% (0.28)% Fed. Funds .25% .25% .25% 0 bps 0 bps 10-year Treasuries 3.84% 3.69 3.78 9 bps (6) bps Last Week's Headlines ·         Housing starts came in at 591,000 for January which was better than expected. ·         Building permits came in at 621,000 for January which was better than expected. ·         Industrial production rose .9% for January which was better than expected. ·         Capacity utilization came in at 72.6% which met expectations and was an improvement from December. ·         Core CPI for January came in at (0.1)% which was lower than expected – in fact, the first decline since 1982.   Upcoming Items of Interest ·         Light schedule for this week – we get the Case-Shiller real estate index on Tuesday along with the February consumer confidence index update. On Wednesday, we get January new home sales. On Thursday, initial and continuing claims and January durable orders. On Friday, we get the 2nd Q4 GDP revision, the February PMI report, the final February U of Michigan consumer sentiment report and January existing home sales.      Data source: All information is based on sources deemed reliable, but no warranty or guarantee is made as to its accuracy or completeness. Neither the information nor any opinion expressed herein constitutes a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any securities, and should not be relied on as financial advice. Headlines and upcoming items of interest are pulled from published reports of Vanguard, Briefing.com and Reuters. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is a price-weighted index composed of 30 widely traded blue-chip U.S. common stocks. The S&P 500 is a market-cap weighted index composed of the common stocks of 500 leading companies in leading industries of the U.S. economy. The NASDAQ Composite Index is a market-value weighted index of all common stocks listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The Russell 2000 is a market-cap weighted index composed of 2000 U.S. small-cap common stocks. The MSCI World Index is a free-float adjusted market capitalization weighted index that is designed to measure the equity market performance of developed markets.