Best Month in Four Years

Friday turned out to be a very good day for our Buy List. Ross Stores (ROST) climbed 6.8% on Friday to close at a new all-time high. While the S&P 500 fell 0.07% on Friday, our Buy List advanced 0.30%.

February was a very good month for the stock market. The S&P 500 rose 5.5% for the month which was its best month since October 2011. That comes after falling 3.1% in January. For the month, our Buy List rose 8.7%. That’s very good, but as usual, I don’t want to get carried away by such short-term outperformance.

The government reported that personal income rose 0.3% in January while spending fell by 0.2%. That means that the national savings rate increased. After adjusting for inflation, which was really deflation in January, consumer spending rose by 0.3%. It’s tempting to see the virtues of one’s personal financial situation as similar to the macro-economy, but that’s not necessarily the case. We actually want to see an increase in personal spending.

The ISM report comes out later this morning. It’s fallen for the last three months.

Posted by on March 2nd, 2015 at 9:28 am


The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.