Weekly Market Recap This week saw healthy US retail sales data with further employment improvement. We also saw continued soft inflation and slightly weaker industrial production. Related to this data, the Federal Reserve left US interest rates unchanged during this week's meeting. We believe the current media focus on what the Fed may do, and when, is potentially excessive, especially for longer term investors. Historical data shows that rising rates are not necessarily bad for the stock market, in part because rates generally rise because the economic environment is viewed as robust. Internationally, there are elections scheduled in Greece this Sunday. This is the third time the Greeks will go to the polls this year, though the issues surrounding a bailout in Greece now appear largely resolved. China released long awaited plans to reform state owned enterprises, though for many Western commentators the plans did not go far enough in opening these enterprises up to market forces. The IMF released updated growth forecasts, showing improved growth for the US and Euro area but marked deterioration in Brazil and Canada. Overall aggregate global economic growth is expected to be 3% for this year, 0.1% decline relative to prior forecasts. A reminder this week on the potential benefits of a passive approach to investing. During volatility, such as we've seen recently, there is no shortage of pundits claiming to have predicted the market successfully and to know what's going to happen next. However, academic studies strongly suggest that focusing on a low cost approach and avoiding excessive trading is likely to deliver better returns on average and over time. We believe this approach can be augmented by automatic rebalancing. This can correct for the problems in trading on emotion as behavioral finance identifies. Also, a focus on tax efficiency whether through techniques such as tax loss harvesting or tax efficient asset placement has the potential to help after tax returns. 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. Investments in securities involve the risk of loss. The tax loss harvesting strategy discussed should not be interpreted as tax advice and it does not represent in any manner that the tax consequences detailed will be obtained or that its tax loss harvesting strategy will result in any particular tax consequence. Clients should consult with their personal tax advisors regarding the tax consequences of investing. Your Portfolio Update Over the past month your portfolio was down 2.4% and did as good or better than the benchmark for your age and moderate risk tolerance. However, there are still actions you can take to reduce the Fees in your portfolio and/or improve the Tax Efficiency of your portfolio. We encourage you to sign in and look into them. Ways To Improve Your Portfolio  | Increase Diversification Increase your entire portfolio diversification and lower volatility. | | | Sign in to see your full dashboard | | 
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