The economy is poised to continue growing for the foreseeable future, according to the January update of the Conference Board’s leading indicator index. “This fourth consecutive gain in the LEI reflected fairly widespread strength among its components, pointing to somewhat more positive economic conditions in early 2012,” says Conference Board economist Ataman Ozyildirim in a press release.
Daily Archives: February 17, 2012
Inflation & The New Abnormal
The trend in headline inflation slowed last month, the Labor Department reports. Consumer prices rose 2.9% for the year through January—a slightly slower pace than the annual 3.0% rise as of December. Meanwhile, core inflation—consumer prices less food and energy—inched higher on an annual basis, advancing 2.3% for the year through last month, or up slightly from December’s 2.2% rate. What does it all mean? For the moment, nothing much has changed relative to the previous update. But because we’re still in the new abnormal, higher inflation remains a positive. By that standard, today’s CPI offers a mixed bag of news on the margin.
Kicking The Tires Of Multi-Asset Class Funds
Actively managed asset allocation products are hot. The supply is growing rapidly and there’s a broad variety of strategies to choose from. The product designs range from conservative balanced funds to aggressive trading-oriented strategies and they’re available in open-end mutual funds and ETF formats. But some things never change, and so it’s still hard to beat a passive benchmark of all the major asset classes. That headwind alone doesn’t necessarily mean that you should shun actively managed multi-asset class funds, but it’s a reminder that there’s no free lunch in this corner of investment products. In other words, all the standard caveats that apply to active single-asset class funds apply here. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is figuring out if you can overcome the odds.