In the January issue of Wealth Manager, your editor reviews the expanding list of ETFs in the core domestic-equity space. As students of the booming ETF market know, the menu is getting longer by the week. For the details on our tour of core, along with a recent inventory of the offerings, read on….

U.S. markets are closed today to mark the death of President Ford, but the lack of trading doesn’t dim the optimism that infuses a review of 2006 performance among the major asset classes. As our table below reminds, last year was a very good year.

Very good here is defined by positive performance across the board. As we’ve written previously, it’s rare that all the major asset classes deliver gains within a given calendar year. Or, at least, it used to be rare. Bull markets have become standard operating procedure since 2003, although no one should confuse a trend with a reordering of the laws of money and finance.

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