10/10: What Next?
The Benchmark investment posture, slow and steady, served clients well in the third quarter of 2007. The wild ride and strong headline performance of the large cap indices masked the damage done to small caps and speculative investments.
We continue to be wary of the risks seen and unseen in the US and Global economy as well in the financial markets world-wide. More liquidity provided by central bankers does not cure insolvency, rather it allows many to overlook
the underlying fundamentals.
Consumer spending is weak again in September after good numbers in July and August. We believe a weak fourth quarter is a strong possibility. We also think that a recession may have begun in August/September or at least a period
of no-growth. We retain our cautious investment stance. Broadly diversified portfolios did relatively better than stock-heavy portfolios in the period, and we continue to think that will be true off and on until fundamentals improve.
OSF
October 10, 2007
We continue to be wary of the risks seen and unseen in the US and Global economy as well in the financial markets world-wide. More liquidity provided by central bankers does not cure insolvency, rather it allows many to overlook
the underlying fundamentals.
Consumer spending is weak again in September after good numbers in July and August. We believe a weak fourth quarter is a strong possibility. We also think that a recession may have begun in August/September or at least a period
of no-growth. We retain our cautious investment stance. Broadly diversified portfolios did relatively better than stock-heavy portfolios in the period, and we continue to think that will be true off and on until fundamentals improve.
OSF
October 10, 2007
