Friends
Stocks limped into the end of the quarter, but after all the hand wringing (I know I did my share) and concern about how bad things are, it turned out to be a good one for the bulls. Sure, the economy is slowing as we speak and there is a fiscal cliff looming, but Dr. Bernanke and the ECB are determined to provide whatever liquidity is necessary to keep asset prices from falling. When stocks rise, like they did this quarter, you always feel like you are underinvested (don’t worry, most hedge fund managers are pulling their hair out about now), but of course had stocks fallen precipitously this quarter you would definitely have felt like you were too exposed, no matter how few stocks you owned. That’s why it’s always important to know what asset mix allows you to sleep well at night. Of course our motto here at CHJ has always been, give me a piece of the upside when things go up, but limit my losses when things deteriorate.
As it is, for the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 48 points to finish the month at 13,437. The S&P 500 was down 6 points to close at 1440. Gold was down about $6 to finish trading near $1774 per ounce, while oil was mostly unchanged settling around $92 per barrel WTI.
Well, we’ll take this weekend to review the 3rd quarter, contemplating why virtually every economist on the planet missed the slowing growth story, yet with the help of quantitative easing around the world, stock prices continued to rise. The fourth quarter should be fun, with an election and a fiscal cliff dominating the domestic story, and Greece, Spain, China and the Middle East giving us heartburn from overseas. We’ll need to get our rest as the next three months should be “exciting”.
Have a great weekend everyone.
