Seven Things You Should Know December 4th 2009   1.  Second Worst Decade For Stocks:  Since 1900, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has declined in price (not total returns) in just two decades — the 1930s and the 2000s.  The Dow is currently down 9.2% since the end of 1999.  In the 1930s the index fell 39.5%.  The best…

Seven Things You Should Know November 20th 2009  1.  Six Month Periods:  The 6-month period from November-April has gained +230% for the S&P 500 since 1990, more than 5 times the +44% return achieved during the 6 months from May- October. Both numbers are total return performance results from 1/01/90 to 10/31/09 (source: BTN Research)…

Seven Things You Should Know November 13th 2009 1.  Earnings Season:  More than 80% of S&P 500 companies beat their earnings estimates this earnings season, the average stock that beat estimates went up 1.32% on its report day, while the average stock that missed estimates went down 3.43%.  (Source: Bespoke Investment Group) 2.  Jobless Claims: …

Seven Things You Should Know November 6th 2009 1. 30% of Americans age 45-64 surveyed in late July 2009 have stopped contributing to a pre-tax retirement plan (source: AARP). 2. Total household debt in the US was $13.7 trillion as of 6/30/09, 96% of the size of our $14.2 trillion economy. The debt-to-economy ratio was…

Seven Things You Should Know October 23rd 2009 1. The trailing 10-year total return for the S&P 500 as of the end of 2008 was negative, the first time this had occurred at the end of a calendar year since 1939. (source: BTN Research) 2. The actual results for fiscal year 2009 (i.e., the 12…

Seven Things You Should Know October 9th 2009 1. The last time the IRS raised its top marginal tax bracket paid by individual taxpayers was in 1993. The top marginal tax bracket of 31% from 1992 was raised to 39.6% in 1993. The top bracket has been 35% since 2003 (source: IRS). 2. The S&P…