T. Rowe Price Investment Services, Inc.
Week Ended January
8, 2010
Stock prices rose in the
first week of the new year. Investors bid shares sharply higher on Monday in
response to news of rising industrial production in the United States, Europe,
and China. Materials and energy shares were particularly robust. Continuing
favorable economic news help stocks rise modestly through the middle of the
week. The Commerce Department reported a solid rise in factory orders, and data
from the Institute for Supply Management showed a surprisingly strong pickup in
service sector activity. The end of the week brought discouraging news in the
form of a Labor Department report, which showed that payrolls declined by
85,000 in December. The decline was larger than most expected and reversed a
slight gain in payrolls (the first since the recession began) in November.
Investors appeared undeterred by the data, however, appearing to focusing
instead on the possibility that the Fed may continue to keep interest rates low
for a longer period in order to encourage job growth.
|
U.S.
Stocks1
|
|
Index2
|
Friday’s Close
|
Week’s Change
|
% Change
Year-to-Date
|
|
DJIA
|
10618.19
|
190.14
|
1.82%
|
|
S&P
500
|
1114.98
|
29.88
|
2.68%
|
|
NASDAQ
Composite
|
2317.17
|
48.02
|
2.12%
|
|
S&P
MidCap 400
|
752.08
|
25.40
|
3.50%
|
|
Russell
2000
|
643.79
|
9.72
|
1.53%
|
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.
------------------------
·
U.S. Bond Market
Week Ended January 8, 2010
Stock prices rose in the first week of the new year. Investors bid shares
sharply higher on Monday in response to news of rising industrial production in
the United States, Europe, and China. Materials and energy shares were
particularly robust. Continuing favorable economic news help stocks rise
modestly through the middle of the week. The Commerce Department reported a
solid rise in factory orders, and data from the Institute for Supply Management
showed a surprisingly strong pickup in service sector activity. The end of the
week brought discouraging news in the form of a Labor Department report, which
showed that payrolls declined by 85,000 in December. The decline was larger
than most expected and reversed a slight gain in payrolls (the first since the
recession began) in November. Investors appeared undeterred by the data,
however, appearing to focusing instead on the possibility that the Fed may
continue to keep interest rates low for a longer period in order to encourage
job growth.
|
U.S.
Stocks1
|
|
Index2
|
Friday’s Close
|
Week’s Change
|
% Change
Year-to-Date
|
|
DJIA
|
10618.19
|
190.14
|
1.82%
|
|
S&P
500
|
1114.98
|
29.88
|
2.68%
|
|
NASDAQ
Composite
|
2317.17
|
48.02
|
2.12%
|
|
S&P
MidCap 400
|
752.08
|
25.40
|
3.50%
|
|
Russell
2000
|
643.79
|
9.72
|
1.53%
|
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.
Week
Ended January 8, 2010
The year got off to a
shaky start with a report that another 85,000 jobs were lost in December, more
than most analysts had anticipated. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at
10%, but that reflects a large number of job seekers leaving the labor force.
That said, the pace of job losses has been slowing in recent months, although
economists don’t expect the employment picture to improve significantly in the
foreseeable future. The economy has lost 7.2 million jobs since the recession
began at the end of 2007, and it is going to be difficult to recover them all
before the onset of another recession, according to some observers. The Federal
Reserve is unlikely to tighten monetary policy until signs of a sustained
recovery become more evident. Treasury yields were mixed on the news, with the
two-year yield declining and the 30-year yield rising from its level at the end
of 2009.
|
U.S.
Treasury Yields1
|
|
Maturity
|
January 8, 2010
|
December 31, 2009
|
|
2-Year
|
0.96%
|
1.14%
|
|
10-Year
|
3.81%
|
3.83%
|
|
30-Year
|
4.70%
|
4.63%
|
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, January 8, 2010.
---------------------------------
International Stocks
Foreign stock markets
closed higher for the week ending December 31, 2009 with the broad
international measure, the MSCI EAFE Index (Europe, Australasia, and Far East),
gaining 0.42%.
|
|
|
Region/Country
|
Week’s Return
|
% Change Year-to-Date
|
|
EAFE
|
0.42%
|
32.46%
|
|
Europe ex-U.K.
|
0.29%
|
33.94%
|
|
Denmark
|
0.27%
|
37.09%
|
|
France
|
0.55%
|
33.26%
|
|
Germany
|
0.00%
|
26.56%
|
|
Italy
|
0.53%
|
28.00%
|
|
Netherlands
|
0.23%
|
43.04%
|
|
Spain
|
-0.15%
|
45.07%
|
|
Sweden
|
1.18%
|
65.89%
|
|
Switzerland
|
-0.02%
|
26.61%
|
|
United
Kingdom
|
1.55%
|
43.37%
|
|
Japan
|
-1.97%
|
6.39%
|
|
AC
Far East ex-Japan
|
2.06%
|
69.39%
|
|
Hong
Kong
|
1.84%
|
60.15%
|
|
Korea
|
1.14%
|
72.06%
|
|
Malaysia
|
0.82%
|
52.06%
|
|
Singapore
|
2.44%
|
74.00%
|
|
Taiwan
|
3.47%
|
80.25%
|
|
Thailand
|
1.37%
|
77.31%
|
|
EM
Latin America
|
1.64%
|
104.19%
|
|
Brazil
|
2.72%
|
128.62%
|
|
Mexico
|
-1.63%
|
56.63%
|
|
Argentina
|
2.27%
|
64.00%
|
|
EM
(Emerging Markets)
|
1.62%
|
79.02%
|
|
Hungary
|
3.29%
|
77.61%
|
|
India
|
0.51%
|
102.81%
|
|
Israel
|
-0.14%
|
54.58%
|
|
Russia
|
-0.91%
|
104.91%
|
|
Turkey
|
4.12%
|
98.49%
|
Back to Top
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 -0.68%.
|
|
|
Region/Country
|
Week’s Return
|
% Change Year-to-Date
|
|
Developed
Markets
|
-0.68%
|
3.94%
|
|
Europe
|
|
|
|
Denmark
|
-0.46%
|
5.00%
|
|
France
|
-0.56%
|
6.25%
|
|
Germany
|
-0.55%
|
5.12%
|
|
Italy
|
-0.61%
|
11.81%
|
|
Spain
|
-0.31%
|
6.96%
|
|
Sweden
|
1.92%
|
9.78%
|
|
United
Kingdom
|
1.58%
|
11.22%
|
|
Japan
|
-1.41%
|
-1.75%
|
|
Emerging
Markets
|
0.18%
|
25.95%
|
|
Argentina
|
0.15%
|
132.78%
|
|
Brazil
|
0.11%
|
11.04%
|
|
Bulgaria
|
-0.71%
|
28.19%
|
|
Russia
|
0.00%
|
37.11%
|
Back to Top
International
Currency Markets
On the currency front,
the U.S. dollar was stronger against the major currencies for the week.
|
|
|
Currency
|
Close
(December 31, 2009)
|
Week’s Return
(U.S. $)
|
% Change
Year-to-Date (U.S. $)
|
|
Japanese
yen
|
93.095
|
1.42%
|
2.63%
|
|
Euro
|
1.43481
|
0.07%
|
-3.22%
|
|
British
pound
|
1.61491
|
-1.37%
|
-12.32%
|
1U.S. dollars per national currency
unit.