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Week Ended September 30, 2011

Most markets lost ground for the week, as mixed economic news late in the week weighed on stocks. Technology stocks suffered the biggest losses. Concerns about the European debt crisis appeared to ease somewhat due to political progress in providing further aid to Greece to avoid—or at least postpone—a default on the country's sovereign debt. Markets appeared to surge in part due to rumors of a new "special purpose vehicle" for purchasing troubled European sovereign debt, but firm evidence of progress arrived as well. On Tuesday, the Greek parliament approved a new property tax in order to improve the country's fiscal position, and on Thursday, German lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to expand the existing bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility. U.S. economic news was mixed. The Labor Department reported that weekly jobless claims had fallen substantially, helping reverse a worrisome rise late in the summer, although some cautioned that the sharp drop was due in part to seasonal adjustments in the data. The Commerce Department revised upward its estimate of second-quarter growth to an annualized rate of 1.3%—an anemic pace, but somewhat better than its prior estimate of 1.0%. However, the government also reported that U.S. income levels fell for the first time in nearly two years during August. The technology-oriented Nasdaq lagged the other indexes, weighed down by poor outlooks from chipmakers and weakness among Internet shares.

U.S. Stocks¹
Index²	Friday's Close	Week's Change	% Change Year-to-Date
DJIA	10913.38	141.90	-5.74%
S&P 500	1131.42	-5.01	-10.04%
NASDAQ Composite	2415.40	-67.83	-8.95%
S&P MidCap 400	781.31	-11.18	-13.88%
Russell 2000	644.15	-6.06	-17.97%

This chart is for illustrative purposes only and does not represent the performance of any specific security. Past performance cannot guarantee future results.

¹Source of data Reuters, obtained through Yahoo! Finance Closing data as of 4:10 p.m. ET.

²The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard & Poor's 500 Stock Index of blue chip stocks, the Standard & Poor's MidCap 400 Index, and the Russell 2000 Index are unmanaged indexes representing various segments by market capitalization of the U.S. equity markets. The Nasdaq Composite is an unmanaged index representing the companies traded on the Nasdaq stock market and the National Market System.

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U.S. Bond Market

Week Ended September 30, 2011

Yields on short-dated U.S. Treasuries rose slightly from last Friday, when they hit new lows as investors scooped up "safe-haven" assets amid ongoing unease about the global economic outlook. Yields on two-year and 10-year bonds rose, while 30-year yields stayed unchanged from the prior week. Treasury prices have rallied in recent weeks, pushing yields down to rock-bottom levels, as anxiety about the flagging U.S. economy, slowing global growth, and a possible Greek debt default led investors to dump riskier assets and seek refuge in U.S. government debt. In economic news, the Commerce Department reported Thursday the U.S. economy grew at a 1.3% pace in the second quarter of 2011, up from a previously calculated gain of 1.0% and a 0.4% rise in the first quarter. Although quarterly growth was stronger than expected, other reports pointed to economic weakness. New home sales in August declined 2.3% to a six-month low while the median home selling price fell 7.7%, the Commerce Department said on Monday. Consumer confidence in September hovered close to a two-year low as consumers worried about falling stock prices and the weak housing and jobs markets, according to the Conference Board, a private research group. Finally, consumer spending in August slowed from the previous month, the Commerce Department reported on Friday. Friday marked the end of the year's third quarter, which was the best-performing quarter for Treasuries since the height of the 2008 financial crisis. Yields on 30-year bonds fell 1.47% over the past three months, the biggest quarterly reduction since the period ended December 2008, according to Bloomberg.

U.S. Treasury Yields¹
Maturity	September 30, 2011	September 23, 2011
2-Year	0.25%	0.22%
10-Year	1.90%	1.83%
30-Year	2.90%	2.90%

This table is for illustrative purposes only. Past performance cannot guarantee future results.

¹Source of data: Bloomberg.com, as of 4 p.m. ET Friday, September 30, 2011.

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International Market

Week Ended September 23, 2011

International Stocks

Foreign stock markets closed lower for the week ending September 23, 2011 with the broad international measure, the MSCI EAFE Index (Europe, Australasia, and Far East), losing -6.79%.


Region/Country	Week's Return	% Change Year-to-Date
EAFE	-6.79%	-16.98%
Europe ex-U.K.	-7.86%	-21.13%
Denmark	-4.37%	-24.10%
France	-8.77%	-22.07%
Germany	-8.74%	-24.27%
Italy	-7.46%	-28.44%
Netherlands	-7.13%	-21.94%
Spain	-6.21%	-14.95%
Sweden	-10.29%	-25.34%
Switzerland	-5.98%	-12.99%
United Kingdom	-7.64%	-12.54%
Japan	-2.20%	-12.23%
AC Far East ex-Japan	-10.18%	-19.87%
Hong Kong	-7.61%	-17.99%
Korea	-12.36%	-21.03%
Malaysia	-7.42%	-11.85%
Singapore	-7.12%	-15.64%
Taiwan	-9.58%	-22.06%
Thailand	-8.78%	-8.49%
EM Latin America	-13.59%	-26.57%
Brazil	-14.27%	-28.68%
Mexico	-12.51%	-21.65%
Argentina	-10.22%	-35.02%
EM (Emerging Markets)	-11.78%	-23.36%
Hungary	-15.87%	-35.13%
India	-8.44%	-28.53%
Israel	-4.69%	-30.46%
Russia	-15.89%	-25.34%
Turkey	-5.53%	-27.10%

International Bond Markets

International bond markets in developed countries were lower this week, with the J.P. Morgan Global Government Bond Less U.S. Index losing -0.34%.


Region/Country	Week's Return	% Change Year-to-Date
Developed Markets	-0.34%	7.29%
Europe
Denmark	-0.21%	10.83%
France	-1.49%	7.40%
Germany	-0.80%	9.73%
Italy	-2.70%	-2.37%
Spain	-1.47%	5.44%
Sweden	-2.21%	9.38%
United Kingdom	-1.19%	9.54%
Japan	1.12%	8.54%
Emerging Markets	-3.22%	3.47%
Argentina	-8.98%	-18.60%
Brazil	-1.16%	8.16%
Bulgaria	-2.43%	0.82%
Russia	-4.70%	2.08%

International Currency Markets

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar was stronger against the major currencies for the week.


Currency	Close (September 23, 2011)	Week's Return (U.S. $)	% Change Year-to-Date (U.S. $)
Japanese yen	76.260	-0.81%	-6.35%
Euro	1.3519¹	1.93%	-0.77%
British pound	1.5438¹	2.26%	1.40%

¹U.S. dollars per national currency unit.

Sources: Foreign stock markets and currency sections are from Rimes Technologies, using MSCI data. International bond markets are from J.P. Morgan.

Note: All returns are in U.S. dollars. All bond indices are J.P. Morgan. All stock indices are Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI).

Equity Indices
EAFE:	MSCI Europe, Australasia, and Far East Index
Europe Ex-U.K.:	MSCI Europe ex-U.K. Index
Far East Ex-Japan:	MSCI AC Far East ex-Japan Index
Latin America:	MSCI Emerging Markets Latin America Index
Emerging Markets:	MSCI Emerging Markets Index

Bond Indices
Developed Markets:	J.P. Morgan Global Government Bond Less U.S. Index
Emerging Markets:	J.P. Morgan Emerging Markets Bond Index Plus

All charts are for illustrative purposes only and do not represent the performance of any specific security. Past performance cannot guarantee future results.