Annual Scary and Sweet Market Update

I guess it’s a good year in the stock market when the worst performing sectors (so far, as of writing this blog on September 13^th) aren’t negative, just not up as high as the best performers.  My sage advice for acting on this data – don’t get used to it!

Here, with no particular plan for you to act on the information, are the best and worst performing sectors as of 75% through 2021:

Best:

Energy: Up 42.98%

Technology: Up 36.08%

Financial: Up 27.35%

Capital Goods:  Up 21.64%

Services: Up 21.26%

Consumer non-Cyclical:  20.77%

Worst:

Transportation:  Up 8.03%

Utilities:  Up 8.51%

Conglomerates:  Up 11.09%

Consumer Discretionary:  Up 13.88%

Retail:  Up 14.26%

Basic Materials:  Up 16.78%

So, in the US stock market, nothing too scary, generally pretty sweet.  As a comparison, the Vanguard Total Bond Market Index is down .79% year to date, as compared with its category down 1.22%.  This is not to say you abandon bonds!  Rather, a reminder that when stocks go up, bonds are typically flat or down, which is holding true today.

Also, notice that a bad year in the bond market is really not that bad.  Stick to your diversified holdings, even when some of those holdings make you mad.

*Source – and this will be more up to date if you click now:  https://csimarket.com/markets/markets_glance.php?days=ytd