Historically, September has been a lousy month for
the stock market, and in 2013 we enter the loss month on the verge of going to
war again. Here’s what happened yesterday, as reported by Yahoo:
“With the Labor Day weekend ahead and the likelihood
of military action in Syria also looming.…equities fell to their lows midway
through the session when Secretary of State John Kerry commented on the Syrian
situation, implying the U.S. will act alone if necessary….
“Eight of ten sectors ended in the red with influential cyclical groups weighing on the broader market. Financials, technology, industrials, and discretionary shares lost between 0.5% and 0.7% with the discretionary sector leading to the downside.
“Nearly all discretionary components posted losses. Home builders settled on their lows as the iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction (ITB 20.56, -0.40) fell 1.9%. Retailers also slumped as the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 77.88, -0.59) lost 0.8%. Big Lots (BIG 35.42, +0.78) bucked the trend among retailers, climbing 2.3%....
“Elsewhere, the industrial sector succumbed to the pressure exerted by transportation companies as the Dow Jones Transportation Average fell 1.1%.” See:
DIY portfolio managers about to duck for cover can either
go to cash now (and use it for bottom fishing when the market inevitably turns
positive) or boldly switch into inverse funds.
Searching for stocks likely to
gain in a down trend is a third and far more challenging alternative.
I am reluctant to recommend switching to bonds. They
fall in value when interest rates rise, and bond rates are way overdue for an
up trend.
Writing for ETF Trends, Gary Gordon goes beyond war
fears when he says real-estate ETFs “hold the key to the U.S. stock market’s
direction.” See:
Also, John Spence writes of inflows on fears market set for a fall. See:
