The Summer Rally

At the bottom of the television screen while watching CNBC yesterday, I noticed a picture of a sun and the words "summer rally". I thought I was watching the Today show for a minute. The media is now in the entertainment business apparently and are surely fanning the fire of this market rally. The point is, don't be swayed by what the media is saying--their only goal is to increase viewership.
The market continues to do well. The S&P 500 is up 34% from it's March low. Most indices are posting positive returns year-to-date. The market is probably somewhat cheap to fair vs. a very cheap March valuation. Remember how you felt on March 8th? when the market had hit bottom again? Most people wanted to sell everything--which was absolutely the wrong thing to do. All we can do is learn from the past and remember that nothing bad lasts forever. Here are the return numbers through July 31, 2009.

The Monthly Index Report for July 2009

Index	Jul-09	QTD	YTD	Description
S&P 500 Index*	7.4%	7.4%	9.3%	Large-cap stocks
DJIA*	8.6%	8.6%	4.5%	Large-cap stocks
Nasdaq Comp.*	7.8%	7.8%	25.5%	Large-cap tech stocks
Russell 1000 Growth	7.1%	7.1%	19.5%	Large-cap growth stocks
Russell 1000 Value	8.2%	8.2%	5.1%	Large-cap value stocks
Russell 2000 Growth	7.8%	7.8%	20.0%	Small-cap growth stocks
Russell 2000 Value	11.6%	11.6%	5.8%	Small-cap value stocks
EAFE	9.1%	9.1%	18.3%	Europe, Australasia & Far East Index
Lehman Aggregate	1.6%	1.6%	3.5%	U.S. Government Bonds
Lehman High Yield	6.1%	6.1%	38.4%	High Yield Corporate Bonds
Calyon Financial Barclay Index**	-1.2%	-1.2%	-5.7%	Managed Futures
3-mo. Treasury Bill***	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
All returns are estimates as of July 31, 2009. *Return numbers do not include dividends. ** Returns are estimates as of July 30, 2009.