Will the Mid-Term Elections Drive the Market Into High Gear?
September 27, 2010 at 06:00 AM EDT
The past five days added more hues to the emerging snapshot of U.S. economic growth that is sluggish and top-heavy, but still rolling forward -- kind of like a tank that can't get out of first gear. New data shows that U.S. GDP is back to 70% of its pre-recession strength, but jobs have recovered only 9%. It's this disconnect between output and employment that has made the current "recovery" seem so anemic. That was fine for investors, who bid up risky assets in the past week just as they had the previous three weeks. The S&P 500 rose 2%, the Nasdaq 100 rose 3.5%, overseas large caps rose 3.3%, and emerging markets rose 2.5%. Gold rose 1.7%, silver rose 3%, crude oil rose 2.1%, and even bonds rose 1.5%. Among the overseas markets we care most about, ishares MSCI Thailand Index Fund (NYSE: THD ) rose 5.6%, Wisdom Tree India Earnings Fund (NYSE: EPI ) rose 3.3%, and ishares MSCI Singapore Index Fund (NYSE: EWS ) rose 2.4%. To find out why the mid-term elections are important to the market read on...