Tuesday, April 5, 2011

March Recap 4/5/11

As usual, the financial markets were very interesting.  The month of March saw extreme volatility -- and weirdly enough, some markets remained relatively flat for the month.  U.S. stocks and bonds ended the month mostly flat, with the S&P 500 closing at 1326 after opening the month at 1327.

Events in Japan and Libya created extreme volatility and whipsaw-like market action for many markets.  The Japanese Nikkei index plummeted -20% before bouncing back to end the month down about -10%.  Many other markets such as sugar, oil, and grains also saw reversals in long-term trends and then a bounce-back.

Managed futures indices and benchmarks tabulated by Barclays and NewEdge were down about -2% to -5%.  Trading advisor performance was generally down, with performance in a wide range.  In general, the commodities sectors fared better than the financial sectors.

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