Weekly Market Recap This week saw European growth improve. Growth in the Eurozone in Q1 was 0.4% relative to the prior quarter, ahead of the 0.1% growth in the US over the same period. Importantly, France and Italy returned to growth after a sluggish 2014. In the US, this week saw continuing strong employment data, but retail sales, consumer sentiment and producer pricing (one key indicator of inflation) all came in lower than expected. Though the US continues to grow, we believe the global picture may be changing, as Europe appears to be contributing more meaningfully to global growth than in recent years. This trend that we are seeing serves as a reminder of the value of international diversification across stock portfolios. The S&P 500 has had ups and downs but significantly lags global indices Year To Date (YTD). This is, in part, because Japan and Europe are up over 10% in dollar terms YTD and are a significant portion of the stock portfolio we recommend. Of course, it's never a completely positive global picture. Malaysia, Brazil and India have had a weaker start to 2015, though are a much smaller part of portfolios than the regions that are growing. Overall international diversification not only smooths performance but has also improved the performance of your portfolio so far this year relative to a US only portfolio. In fact, the MSCI index of stock markets outside the US has delivered more than double the return of the S&P 500 so far this year. Given our long term investment perspective, we believe it's short sighted for long term investors to focus too much on performance trends over just a few months. Nonetheless, what we have seen in recent months does mirror the broader market trends across history. Diversification can smooth returns by spreading risk so that you're not exposed to the highs and lows of a single market - a tenet that is integral to how we construct portfolios. Disclaimer:
The views expressed herein are not intended to serve as a forecast, a guarantee of future results, investment recommendations or an offer to buy or sell securities by FutureAdvisor. Differences in account size, timing of transactions and market conditions prevailing at the time of investment may lead to different results, and clients may lose money. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Your Portfolio Summary | $10,074.58 Your Total Assets | B Diversification | A+ Fee Efficiency | A+ Tax Efficiency | | | | | Ways To Improve Your Portfolio | 0 Accounts with Actions | Your portfolio has no recommended actions right now. We'll watch over your investments and alert you with an email when there are actions for you to complete. Sign in to see detailed steps  | | Sign in to see your full dashboard | | 
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