Morning Report – February 1st, 2014

January was not a positive month for the stock indexes, but none of the indexes have fallen to what we consider a minor correction level of 8% as of yet. The DJI was the worst performer at -5.3% among the major indexes, but the NASDAQ Comp is only down 1.7% since the beginning of the year.  The negativity in the media makes it seem a lot worse than it has actually been, but most of the major stock indexes have held up pretty well.

The SP Composite which gives us a better since of the market as a whole because it contains a mixture of Large, Mid and Small Cap stocks is only down 3.5% with the small caps being the weakest at -3.9%.  What really stands out in this graphic is the flight to fear and safety with the VIX up 34.2% since the beginning of the year followed by the TLT up 6.3%, Gold up 3.4%, and Utilities, the best performing sector up 3.2%. Read full report